Scientists Lose Critical Climate Record as Ocean Observatory Goes Dark Under Trump Funding Cuts

A critical piece of one of the most ambitious ocean monitoring networks ever built will go dark this month when scientists board a research vessel off the Oregon coast to remove a research buoy from the Pacific Ocean. The buoy, located 80 meters (260 feet) below the surface, will be pulled on June 16 from the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), a network of more than 900 ocean sensors built at a cost of $386 million that has collected real-time data continuously for over a decade.

Last month, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced it would dismantle most of the system, removing instruments from waters off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina, and Greenland by 2027. The observatories, funded by the NSF, have tracked ocean circulation, marine ecosystems, climate change, and extreme weather.

Their data has been freely available and supported more than 500 scientific publications. The project was designed to run for another 15 to 20 years.

In an emailed statement, the NSF said the decision is not a cancellation but a "descoping" aligned with a "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." The foundation added that its decision drew in part on a 2025 National Academies report on the future of ocean science.

For scientists who built and operated the system, the timing is particularly punishing. An El Niño event, which disrupts weather patterns and intensifies marine heat waves, is predicted to arrive along the Pacific coast this summer.

One marine heat wave is already pushing unusually warm water off California. Without the Oregon and Washington moorings and the network of underwater gliders operated by the OOI in the region, researchers say they will lose much of their ability to measure what is happening below the surface, where the most significant oceanographic signals are.

"It's a crippling loss of information," Ed Dever, a professor at Oregon State University who helped lead the initiative's Pacific Northwest operations, told the Associated Press. Scientists can obtain some data from the surface, such as temperature and chlorophyll distribution, but information below the surface, including low-oxygen zones, cannot be gathered from satellites alone.

The initiative launched in 2015 after more than a decade of community planning and construction. It was designed as a 25- to 30-year project, based on the oceanographic consensus that detecting meaningful climate signals requires at least three decades of continuous data.

"We've just got to the 10-year record," Dever said, "which will give you some hints, but it won't continue on."

One significant piece will remain: a seafloor cable network managed by the University of Washington off the Pacific Northwest coast, which will continue providing data on volcanic and seismic activity. Scientists had seen warning signs as the administration's proposed 2026 budget included a 55% cut to the NSF.

Official word to begin shutting down arrived in early May.

The OOI was coordinated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in collaboration with the University of Washington and Oregon State University, as well as past partners including Rutgers University and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The initiative operated on roughly $48 million a year, not including the cost of research vessels, which adds substantially to the overall price.

Prior to budget cuts that began in 2025, around 60 to 70 people worked directly on the project across its partner institutions.

"What's happening with the Ocean Observatories Initiative is not unique," Dever said. "This is just one of a number of science facilities that is being dismantled at the present time.

It seems to really mark the end of a federal commitment to basic scientific research—a commitment that has served this nation very well for the last 70 years."