Climate Trump Ocean Monitoring

The Trump administration is dismantling a $386 million network of more than 900 ocean sensors funded by the National Science Foundation. An expert told The Associated Press Tuesday that it’s a crippling loss of information. The Ocean Observatories Initiative has collected real-time ocean data for a decade and informed more than 500 scientific publications. It was intended to run for another 15 to 20 years. Instruments will be pulled from waters off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina and south of Greenland. Scientists warn it’s a particularly precarious moment. A marine heat wave is already building off California and experts predict an El Nino event this summer.

Lawmakers are demanding the National Science Foundation stop dismantling the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a $386 million ocean monitoring network being wound down under President Donald Trump's administration. House Democrats on two committees call the action illegal. Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley says he's drafting legislation to freeze the removal of instruments until a full scientific review is completed. The National Science Foundation directed the removal of most of the system’s instruments from waters off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina and Greenland by 2027. Monday’s pushback against the Republican administration’s actions comes as scientists are set to remove instruments from the Pacific and as an El Niño event is predicted to arrive this summer.