The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has walked back plans to dismantle a deep-ocean observation system after pushback from members of Congress.
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) announced recently the administration was planning to dismantle the USD 368 million (EUR 321 million) Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). The OOI consisted of multiple underwater monitoring arrays, which provide openly accessible data to oceanographers, researchers, educators, and the public and contributed to everything from storm forecasting to fishery health.
The plans to dismantle the observatories met pushback from multiple members of Congress, including U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) who along with several other senators including U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), sent a letter to Acting NSF Director Brian Stone urging the agency to reverse its decision.
“Eliminating most of this complex ocean monitoring system threatens the safety of our coastal communities while undermining our nation’s ability to monitor coastal environments, marine currents, and extreme weather events,” the senators wrote wrote.
The senators said especially as the world was entering a severe El Niño weather event, dismantling a tool to provide real-time data on ocean changes put coastal communities at risk.
“Federal funding for the NSF and OOI is crucial for the survival of coastal communities and economies,” the senators wrote. “We urge NSF to abide by congressional intent and legal direction, which is clearly to maintain the operation of this cost-effective research system.”
Cost estimates placed yearly upkeep of the array at USD 48 million (EUR 42 million), and the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan bill to protect the OOI.
“We are calling out an SOS – Save Ocean Sensors!” Merkley said during a congressional hearing. “Dismantling the Ocean Observatories Initiative is supreme stupidity, costing taxpayers millions of dollars and destroying a vital source of climate data. Our simple, bipartisan bill blocks this incredibly short-sighted decision and preserves these critical ocean monitoring sensors that keep coastal communities and fishers safe.”
The Trump administration had attempted to cut funding to the ocean observation program multiple times in its funding proposals – which also included big cuts to NOAA Fisheries. U.S. Congress largely rejected many of those spending cuts in its own funding bills.
The NSF said “effective immediately” it will not proceed with further removal of the remaining sensor arrays and will develop plans to redeploy the equipment it already removed after servicing.
