Like climate change, where one lives determines their observations about such changes.
It is no different with ocean level rise, because like land weather, it is not a uniform experience.
That is, some areas have experienced cooling, while others experienced warming, the net effect being warming when all the data are added together then averaged.
Ocean level rise has similar characteristics, that is, in some areas the ocean level is decreasing, while at the same time in other areas the ocean level is rising:
In Alaska, Hill’s team estimates that the sea level has been decreasing by nearly 1 centimeter per year – which is good news for Alaska, but only worsens the sea level rise in the tropics. Elsewhere, the first GRACE results, announced five years ago, showed that Greenland is shedding ice much faster than expected. More recent findings suggest the melting both there and in Antarctica has been accelerating.(Scientific American). What an observer should take from this reality is that a person who says the Earth is cooling, and/or the ocean level is decreasing, can be correct as to a local area, but not correct as to global conditions.
Considering that melting ice caps are probably the single biggest climate threat, you’d think that governments would put a high priority on monitoring them.
Eventually as the polar caps melt, the ocean level will rise everywhere over time, but due to currents and other factors, the level will rise in some places before it does in others, even though the difference in level will be slight.
Be sure to look into the overall picture when researching such assertions.