All articles tagged with #ocean observatories initiative
After bipartisan backlash in Congress, the National Science Foundation halted plans to remove equipment from the Ocean Observatories Initiative, will convene experts to chart a sustainable path forward, and pledged to redeploy remaining assets rather than further descale the decade-old, 900-instrument network that provides vital climate data.
The Trump administration has paused its plan to dismantle the $368 million Ocean Observatories Initiative after bipartisan backlash in Congress; the National Science Foundation will delay removing hundreds of depth instruments and will convene an expert panel to decide the future of the ocean-monitoring network.
The National Science Foundation announced a plan to descope the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a $368 million, 900-instrument deep-sea network that has provided data on ocean currents, climate variability, and marine ecosystems since 2016. The phased removal of in-water infrastructure at sites off North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and in the Irminger Sea will take about 15 months and ends continuous monitoring after more than a decade. Scientists and Democratic lawmakers criticized the move as short-sighted and warned it could create a data gap and complicate future rebuilding, even as NSF says the program is not canceled and aims to prioritize evolving priorities and technologies.