Hundreds of sophisticated monitoring instruments will remain in place in the nation’s oceans after the National Science Foundation reversed its plan to partially dismantle the system.
The federal agency announced on Thursday, June 18, that it is dropping its plan to remove hundreds of instrument buoys from the Ocean Observatories Initiative program.
The program encompasses more than 900 instruments monitoring ocean currents, temperatures, sea life and other conditions. Information gathered is used to analyze weather and prepare for extreme weather events, manage fisheries, record climate change and other functions.
The $386 million system was installed a decade ago and was intended to last for three decades.
Under the Trump administration, the National Science Foundation had planned in the coming year to remove instruments from the waters off Alaska, as well as Washington state, Oregon, North Carolina and Greenland. The first removal was scheduled for June 16 in waters off Oregon.
News that the Trump administration planned to pull out hundreds of the monitoring instruments triggered outrage from scientists, the fishing industry, members of Congress from coastal states and others.
Late June 17, the U.S. Senate approved a bill to prohibit federal spending for decommissioning of any of the Ocean Observatories Initiative without a thorough review, including review by people and organizations using the information provided by the system
The bill was introduced and brought to the floor by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley. It passed by unanimous consent.
The following day, the National Science Foundation announced the reversal of a decision that it previously classified as a mere “descoping” of the observatories network.
“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 agency said.
The National Science Foundation said it had already removed part of the system, called the Endurance Array, which is a number of instruments that were placed along the coasts of Oregon and Washington. But now, the agency said, “we are developing plans to redeploy the equipment after servicing.”
Murkowski, one of the prominent defenders of the Oceans Observatories Initiative, emphasized the importance of the system to Alaska, which has more coastline than the rest of the states combined, a fisheries industry worth billions of dollars annually and coastal communities vulnerable to extreme storms.
In a statement, she and Merkley said they welcomed the new decision to keep the Ocean Observatories Initiative intact.
“The National Science Foundation’s decision to leave the Ocean Observatories Initiative’s buoys in place is a massive win for coastal communities and fishermen around the country,” Murkowski said. “The data accessed through OOI is important for so many.”
While most of the sponsors of the bill were Democrats from coastal states, a second Republican later signed on as a cosponsor: Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan.
As for the National Science Foundation, the Trump administration is proposing a 55% funding cut for the coming fiscal year. That is on top of deep cuts made last year that resulted in mass firings and cancellation of more than 1,000 grants, most of them aimed at education.
The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization. Alaskabeacon.com.
