The Trump administration is removing an ocean-floor observation network that collects critical climate data.
The National Science Foundation said it will remove the more than 900 deep-sea instruments that are part of the Ocean Observatories Institute starting this June. The hardware provides continuous, real-time climate data to researchers, monitoring waters near Oregon, Washington State, Alaska, North Carolina and the Irminger Sea, which sits between Greenland and Iceland.
The institute started in 2016 and was meant to provide data for the next 25 years. The information it has collected over the last decade has provided critical insights about coastal flooding, threats to commercial fishing and the ocean's response to climate change. The Irminger Sea sensors have been particularly important in tracking changes to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current, or AMOC, an important global current system that could be destabilizing.
The network cost $370 million to build and $48 million annually to maintain.
The shutdown of the network was recommended in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 blueprint. The document's authors said the OOI is "the source of much of NOAA's climate alarmism" and recommended disbandment.
Trump had previously proposed 80% funding cuts for the OOI in both 2025 and 2026. Congress denied those cuts, but the NSF has moved ahead with removing the monitoring network.
The dismantling of the system has drawn criticism from international and American scientists. "This reflects the further lack of understanding that the current administration has of scientific value and scientific merit," said Craig McLean, who served as the chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during Trump's first term, in an interview with the New York Times. "By dismantling such a system, we push the United States back yet again into a rear seat in global scientific leadership."
Photo credit: Mohamed/Adobe Stock
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.