Trump administration reverses plan to dismantle $368m ocean monitoring network
The National Science Foundation has backed off its plan to scrap the Ocean Observatories Initiative, the $368m network of deep-sea monitoring arrays in the Atlantic and Pacific, halting equipment removal and continuing operations. The reversal, reported following a Senate vote, comes about a month after the original shutdown decision was announced; it remains unclear how much equipment was removed or damaged in the interim. The formal federal statement was still pending at the time of reporting.
Why it matters
Long-term ocean observation underpins climate and weather monitoring, and keeping a continuous federal data record intact is a precondition for tracking how the ocean is changing.
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