Trump administration backs off plan to dismantle ocean monitoring
Huge win!! In partnership with Senator Lisa Murkowski, we protected the Ocean Observatories Initiative—critical sensors that are essential for managing our fisheries, forecasting weather, and understanding climate change.
Alba Dawn18THANK YOU! Now please protect the national parks. I’m betting you’ve got bipartisan support from voters at least.
Merp11Thank God. This one was honestly one of those that I just had to pull my covers over my head and pray because I could not imagine it actually happening. But I also 100% knew it absolutely might have. So this is really, REALLY great news. Thank you.
mleawj.bsky.social10Thk goodness she finally did something good!
occupystephanie4My sister and friend, scientists, are so happy about this huge win!
@janettes-999.bsky.social3Thank goodness the ocean monitoring equipment and program were saved! I called my MOCs about this issue on June 9.
starrling3Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Joe Strummer was cool3Big thumbs up to my Senator, you've got my vote once again
Sean (86 everything trump)2Don't let this improve your opinion of Murkowski
frankjl.bsky.social2It is high time Trump and his sycophants are frog marched out of the White House and into the BigHouse.
Gerald Lohnas2That’s some rare good news! Just when it looked like we couldn’t have any nice things, we get to keep just this one.
wetrustnoone.bsky.social2The best way to deny that something like ocean changes and global warming are happening is to take aware our ability to know.
Peasant with questions2Did someone finally tell the felon that he has property on the ocean. I'd be surprised if he knew this fact.
Ω 👑 🥷🏻 🔨2Murkowski actually delivered for her state's fisheries? I wish I could say, "There's hope for Republicans after all." But the Devil has a brutal no return policy on souls he likens to "An ultimate NDA: Nobody this Damned Didn't kNow."
Good news: The Trump administration is abandoning its plan to dismantle a $368 million ocean monitoring system critical to understanding climate change and marine ecosystems, bowing to a bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/c...
Catherine Rampell141I wrote about the severe consequences of dismantling this system -- for disaster preparedness, fisheries, the military, climate research, developers and local officials facing coastal erosion, etc.-- last week. www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-ocea...
Brian Lemaire13Not only does Russell Vought hate science, since science does not bend to the will of autocrats nor bend its findings to the teachings of Christianity: The whole administration hates science when its findings confirm and give detail to the understanding of global warming.
They are undoubtedly moving to Plan B to destroy them in place via mismanagement and neglect, coupled with the destruction or corruption of the data they collect. Russell Vought is a true believer and an evil man.
Liz Pisares5Except that he has established a history of backing down from legislative opposition, then issuing a Friday night executive order.
TPB - The People's Branch3Good — pressure worked. But notice what it took: a program already gutted, saved only by a scramble of backlash. Real people depend on this science. We shouldn't have to fight the same fire twice. Power held between elections makes wins durable, not reversible.
Slimwasherman2Chances are one of his mates has got some deal going, that's the only reason Trump wouldn't bin it.
🇨🇦 GwenInThe416🇨🇦2He will probably claim he saved it and we should thank him.
Slartibartfast2It's good to know Congress will put its foot down about at least some senseless acts of destruction by the Trumpistas. Too bad they couldn't reach that consensus about Iran!
Guys, THIS IS HUGE! Talking to your representatives works! I don’t want to hear a damn word that scientists are not speaking up. The loss would have been tremendous! One less thing to rebuild! www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/c... 🧪
Lexi "Pro-Democracy" 💙6WOOOHOOOO!!!!! Now this feels good.... And the Obama Center opening... A good day indeed. Thanks for sharing this!!! Appreciate you! 💙💙
Mo Kung3The worst part of stupid people being in charge is that they have no idea that they are stupid people. Paging Drs. Dunning, Drs, Kreuger
WingChick🐸❌👑3Awesome news and confirmation that push back works!
jcools.bsky.social2Hallelujah - we needed good news
Congressional pushback has apparently worked to pause the NSF from dismantling the Ocean Observatories Initiative. Fascinating that this didn't work re NSF's plans to dismantle NCAR. Perhaps because the ocean constituency in Congress is larger & more powerful & more bipartisan? 🧪
David Ho7I too have been surprised that OOI is what got Congress to act, especially since there’s definitely disagreement in the oceanographic community about the cost vs benefit of OOI.
Alexandra Witze5As someone who reported from an OOI deployment cruise a decade ago, I will say a lot of oceanographers have been unhappy with the program's very large operational cost. OOI bites into basic oceanographic research supported by NSF. How should we balance important infrastructure vs discovery science?
Jaime Palter2Maybe Congress is just more willing to push back in June 2026 than it was in December 2025 ? I don't think you can blame NCAR or the broader community (who was united in opposition to NCAR's dismantling) for the different outcomes.
My latest for @science.org: There's been a lot left out of stories about Ocean Observatories Initiative, which has long faced questions over its cost. But even with that, no one -- including marine institutes in red states -- wanted NSF to make changes without thorough scientific review.
Dan Garisto5One thing which has come up during conversations with researchers inside and outside the agency is what ripping out OOI could mean for other large-scale instrumented projects, e.g. NEON in BIO. No signs of disruption so far, but this kind of uncertainty is... not an ideal research environment.
Paul Voosen4There is so so much history on OOI, in @science.org's pages alone. For example, @davidmalakoff.bsky.social profiled John Delaney, who pushed for what became its cabled array, in 2004. (The cabled array is expanding this year, with new sensors for monitoring Cascadia and testing multispan DAS.)
