The Trump administration has reversed course on its effort to shut down a network of ocean research stations in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
The National Science Foundation on Thursday announced a halt to the dismantling of floating scientific observatories off Alaska, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, and Greenland.
Researchers were offloading the last of the Ocean Observatories Initiative’s six high-tech data buoys from Pacific Northwest waters onto a flatbed truck in Newport, Oregon, Thursday morning when they got the word: The science foundation was turning the dismantling ship around.
“The U.S. National Science Foundation appreciates the concerns raised by the range of stakeholders that have informed us they rely on data from the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI),” the agency’s statement reads. “Effective immediately, NSF will not proceed with further removal or descoping of equipment from the remaining arrays and will continue operations including planned maintenance.”
The National Science Foundation on Thursday announced a halt to the dismantling of floating scientific observatories off Alaska, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, and Greenland.
Researchers were offloading the last of the Ocean Observatories Initiative’s six high-tech data buoys from Pacific Northwest waters onto a flatbed truck in Newport, Oregon, Thursday morning when they got the word: The science foundation was turning the dismantling ship around.
“The U.S. National Science Foundation appreciates the concerns raised by the range of stakeholders that have informed us they rely on data from the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI),” the agency’s statement reads. “Effective immediately, NSF will not proceed with further removal or descoping of equipment from the remaining arrays and will continue operations including planned maintenance.”
The high-tech buoys, each worth about $1.5 million, monitor climate change and a variety of ocean conditions, including storms, temperatures, acidity, and oxygen levels, with their data publicly available in real time.
The reversal followed the U.S. Senate voting unanimously Wednesday to block the Trump administration from dismantling the Ocean Observatories Initiative.
Washington Sen. Patty Murray called the dismantling “the height of stupidity” in a press release.
“It's just refreshing to hear how many people from different walks of life are really interested in the ocean, and they want us to pay attention,” Barth said. “They want those measurements out in the ocean to help us see what's going on.”
“It’s a huge relief,” said Dungeness crab fisherman Joseph Veitenhans, on board his boat, the F/V Barbra B, in the Gulf of Alaska. “Not just me, but everybody else involved in the crab fishery.”
Dungeness crabs support Washington’s most valuable commercial fishery, generating about $80 million in sales each year. Dungeness crab season is winter— the most dangerous time to be on the Pacific Ocean.
Veitenhans discovered buoys off the Washington coast were offline last winter when he tried to pull up their wave and weather data before heading out to go crabbing.
“We have weather prediction apps, and they can be pretty good, but they also can be wrong,” he said. “A really good way to tell if the prediction is off is checking real-time weather data from these weather buoys.”
The six Northwest observatories are currently sitting in a warehouse in Corvallis, Oregon, and are in excellent condition, according to Barth.
The science foundation is currently planning how to redeploy the warehoused observatories after they are serviced, according to its statement Thursday.
Barth said it could take “several months” to get the massive buoys redeployed, leaving large gaps in the long-term data that scientists use to understand how the oceans are responding to climate change.
“We have measurements on the shore. We've got satellites above, but we don't have anything else down into the water,” Barth said. “These are the buoys that allow us to see beneath the surface."
Barth said the ocean deserves more attention, since it influences much more of life on land than many people appreciate.
“It drives the climate. It holds heat," he said. "It's been absorbing the heat from the atmosphere, doing us this amazing service.”
When announcing the dismantling in May, the National Science Foundation gave little specific reason for it.
“The decision to descope aligns with NSF's wider strategy of a nimbler approach to prioritize support for evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies,” spokesperson Mike England said in an email without specifying what the new priorities were.
The Trump administration has consistently shown antipathy to funding or heeding climate science, calling it everything from a hoax to a religion.
In its statement, the National Science Foundation said it remains committed to ocean science and announced it will convene an expert panel to identify a path forward for the nation’s ocean-observing systems.
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
