Report: Trump backs off ending ocean monitoring after Murkowski co-leads block of plan in Senate

National Science Foundation says expert panel will now determine future of program, which includes ecosystem and climate data collection in Alaska

A data-collecting buoy off the Carolina coast. The National Science Foundation was planning to begin removing hundreds of ocean instruments that measure ocean data this month. (Darlene Trew Crist/WHOI, via Associated Press)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

The Trump administration’s dismantling of an ocean monitoring system used for purposes such as ecosystem and climate monitoring has been put on hold after the U.S. Senate in a bipartisan vote Wednesday passed a measure blocking the plan, according to published reports.

The National Science Foundation is expected to announce Thursday it will pause efforts to take apart the $368 million Ocean Observatories Initiative while convening an expert panel to determine its future, according to The New York Times, citing a review of documents obtained by the newspaper.

The NSA stated in May it planned to remove instruments from waters off Alaska, Washington state, Oregon, North Carolina and Greenland during the coming year, with the first occurring this week in Oregon.

On Wednesday the Senate passed a bill putting the dismantling on hold that was introduced by Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, is listed as one of 10 additional co-sponsors of the bill in a press release issued Wednesday by Merkley’s office. The bill passed by unanimous consent without floor debate.

The release notes the Ocean Observatories Initiative is "a complex system of 900 ocean monitoring instruments that provides real-time, publicly available data for fishery management, coastal communities, and fishermen across the nation."

"For the past decade, the Ocean Observatories Initiative has generated publicly available, real-time data that provides crucial insights into changing ecosystem conditions and extreme weather," Murkowski said in a post on her official Facebook page on Monday. "The loss of this deep-water observation system would leave public safety officials, natural disaster responders, coastal communities, fishermen, and other industries without the vital information they need. I urge the National Science Foundation to abide by congressional intent and legal direction, which clearly require maintaining the operation of this cost-effective research system."

She was the only Republican among 10 senators who sent a letter to NSF Acting Director Brian Stone on Monday opposing the dismantling. Sullivan’s office on Tuesday issued a statement stating he "has concerns about the dismantling (of) the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI)" and planned to meet with Stone about them.

Among other opponents of the dismantling was Michelle Stratton, executive director of the Alaska Marine Community Coalition, who told Inside Climate News the loss of Ocean Station Papa, a deep-ocean observing system in the Gulf of Alaska at a depth of nearly 14,000 feet, means the state will lose one of its only systems that documents how the ocean is changing in real time.

“We’re in the middle of salmon crashes, crab collapses and repeated marine heatwaves, and this decision takes away the data we rely on to understand what’s happening and how to manage these fisheries,” Stratton told the publication.

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.