Bipartisan lawmakers have halted the Trump administration's plan to remove scientific instruments from a major ocean monitoring system. The move came after the National Science Foundation began pulling equipment from the Ocean Observatories Initiative.
The administration had intended to withdraw hundreds of sensors from waters near the Pacific Northwest, North Carolina and the Irminger Sea. The action targeted the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a program launched in 2016 to study ocean dynamics and climate change.
Last week the National Science Foundation reversed course following a measure passed by senators Jeff Merkley and Lisa Murkowski. The agency will now stop further removals and restore equipment already taken out.
Merkley called the earlier plan “supreme stupidity” and pledged continued support for the data used by scientists, fishermen and coastal communities. The program had faced similar threats in 2025 and 2026 but is now set to operate for at least another decade.
Other U.S.-led ocean projects, including parts of the Argo network and the OSNAP and RAPID studies of Atlantic currents, still face funding shortfalls with no confirmed continuation beyond this year or next.