It was officially founded in 1976 as an independent offshoot of the Canadian Greenpeace Foundation and is the oldest 'Greenpeace' in the United States.
When the original Vancouver-based Greenpeace Foundation agreed in 1979 to be represented in Greenpeace International the Hawaii-based Greenpeace Foundation joined them, but a schism in 1985 over wildlife campaign goals and fundraising ethics caused Greeneace Foundation to withdraw, and it remains an unaffiliated organisation doing business nationally and internationally.
[1][2] According to Greenpeace Foundation's 1979-2023 leader, DJ White, the Hawaii group bought and fielded the world's first fully-owned anti-whaling ship, created and conducted the international dolphin-saving campaign, created and coordinated the worldwide "driftnet" and "dolphin deadly tuna" campaigns, as well as bringing the ship Rainbow Warrior into the Pacific in 1983, for whale, dolphin, and other campaigns.
The Canadian "Don't Make a Wave" committee formed to protest US tectonic nuclear testing at Amchitka in the Aleutian Islands and later the French atmospheric testing at Mururoa in French Polynesia.
It was this ragtag group of idealists and visionaries who first did an at-sea protest of whaling in 1975 and conducted the high-profile campaign against the clubbing of baby harp seals off Newfoundland beginning in 1976.