\n The Ocean Observatories Initiative, or OOI, was set up in 2016 and is made up of around 900 instruments<\/a> in parts of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans specially designed to withstand the immense pressure and corrosive saltiness of the ocean depths. Moored equipment and underwater gliders continuously collect real-time data allowing scientists to monitor the heath of the ocean, including shifts in ocean chemistry and changes to the powerful currents that shape global weather and climate.\n <\/p>\n \n The initiative was supposed to operate for three decades<\/a>, but on May 21, the National Science Foundation, which funds the system, announced it would be \u201cdescoping\u201d the network. Over the next 15 months, \u201cin-water infrastructure\u201d will be removed from arrays off the coasts of Alaska, Washington, Oregon and North Carolina and from the North Atlantic off southeast Greenland, the NSF said in a statement<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The decision \u201caligns with NSF\u2019s wider strategy of a nimbler approach to prioritize support for evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies, as well as smart lifecycle management within its research infrastructure portfolio,\u201d Mike England, head of media affairs at NSF, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \u26c5 Get CNN Weather in your inbox<\/p>\n The forecast is just the beginning. We\u2019ll\u202fsend you expert coverage and the stories behind the weather \u2014 so you always know more than just the number. Sign up for the newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n \n The announcement comes as the Trump administration undoes climate protections<\/a> and attempts to dismantle and defund climate science, at the same time as it pushes to start mining the deep sea<\/a> for critical minerals. Scientists have expressed deep concerns that dismantling this ocean monitoring system undermines ocean science at a critical time, reduces US scientific leadership and is abandoning taxpayer-funded equipment already paid for and installed.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI\u2019d call this penny wise, tons foolish,\u201d said Rick Spinrad, an oceanographer who led the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during the Biden administration. \u201cOOI is proving its value for a range of economic and social benefits: from fisheries management to weather forecasting, to protection from coastal flooding \u2026 Where\u2019s the analysis of return on investment that shows that eliminating OOI is in the taxpayers\u2019 best interest?\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The global oceans are enduring a period of huge change \u2014 some of which remains largely unexplained<\/a>. Ocean temperatures have been off the charts in some places, fueling more intense hurricanes, driving sea level rise<\/a> and causing mass coral bleaching<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Sustained ocean monitoring is \u201chow we detect emerging risks in real time,\u201d said Helen Findlay, a biological oceanographer at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the UK. \u201cWithout them, we are effectively choosing to navigate an increasingly volatile ocean with diminishing visibility.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n A huge area of concern is what the loss of monitoring will mean for our understanding of a crucial network of Atlantic Ocean currents<\/a> called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC. Scientists have used data from the OOI to help try to map the AMOC\u2019s fate.\n <\/p>\n \n A growing body of research suggest the AMOC could be on course to collapse, potentially as early as this century<\/a>, which would bring catastrophic consequences, including accelerated sea level rise along the US East Coast, a winter deep freeze in Europe and prolonged droughts across a swath of Africa.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cOngoing monitoring of the ocean is critical, especially now,\u201d said Stefan Rahmstorf, a physics and oceans professor at Potsdam University in Germany who studies the AMOC. \u201cConcern in the oceanography community about major ocean current changes ahead is large.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n At another array set to be dismantled, the Ocean Station Papa in the Gulf of Alaska, autonomous buoys and gliders track aspects of ocean health, including acidity in an area that\u2019s vital for the fishing industry but highly vulnerable to ocean acidification.\n <\/p>\n \n Findlay, who studies ocean acidification, said her research has shown large parts of the global ocean \u201chave already crossed into a \u2018zone of risk\u2019 for ecosystem change\u201d and the ocean \u201cis on a dangerous tipping course.\u201d None of this work would have been possible without long-term observations, she added.\n <\/p>\n \n Some have accused the Trump administration of ditching ocean monitoring to please fossil fuel companies. \u201cFossil fuel is heating our oceans by the zettajoule, so Trump\u2019s corrupt fossil fuel stooges want to turn off the monitors,\u201d Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, posted<\/a> on X, Tuesday.\n <\/p>\n \n CNN reached out to the White House for comment, but had not heard back at the time of publication.\n <\/p>\n \n The NSF\u2019s England said the Ocean Observatories Initiative was not cancelled but did not provide more information on exactly what is being kept.\n <\/p>\n \n Experts say the ripple effects of what is being lost will be wide. It will \u201ccreate an irreparable blind spot for our country in predicting earthquakes, fishery health, storm forecasting, coastal flooding and more,\u201d said Chris Robbins, associate director of scientific initiatives at Ocean Conservancy. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n CNN\u2019s Andrew Freedman contributed to this report\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary The Trump administration is dismantling a $368 million ocean monitoring system amid record sea temperatures and fears…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-474725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Buoys](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ap26153677571157.jpg\")
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