New England scientists and fishermen are urging the Trump administration to continue funding the Ocean Observatories Initiative — a network of buoys and gliders that collect data from remote parts of the ocean. The National Science Foundation began quietly dismantling the deep-ocean observation system last summer, until the effort was blocked by the U.S. Senate.
The hundreds of scientific instruments remain in the water for the moment, and the federal agency is now asking for public input on the future of the system, with a deadline for comments set for September 30.
Scientists are regarding the agency’s recent request for input with cautious optimism, said Hilary Palevsky, a marine biogeochemist at Boston College. She said the abrupt removal of instruments from the water last summer “shook the community.”
“That was really different from how NSF has operated in the past,” she said.
While the system could certainly use some tweaks, upgrades and better integration with other ocean observation technology, she said, “that should be a decision that’s made with robust community engagement and peer review, not a top-down decision.”
“ It’s no secret that funding from the federal government for oceanography — and other types of research that are really important to our country — is under threat,” said Benjamin Van Mooy, vice president for science and engineering at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He called the federal request for input a “positive development.”
“This is our opportunity to express how important these things are,” he said.
The Ocean Observatories Initiative is a network of more than 900 automated instruments collecting data like temperature and salinity at various depths in remote parts of the ocean. The data is freely available to the public, and has deepened scientific understanding of ocean currents, marine heat waves, climate change and extreme weather.
New England fishermen say the scientific data has also helped explain long-term trends important to the fishing industry, like where fish are moving as the ocean warms.
“If f they don’t collect that kind of information, we’re going to see things change, and we’re not going know why the heck they’re changing and where the fish might be,” said Bill Amaru, a commercial fisherman in Orleans. “So indirectly there’s a major impact in having that knowledge.”
Fred Mattera, a Rhode Island-based fisherman, said data from one part of the observation system, the Pioneer Array, helped scientists and fishermen better understand the phenomena of “warm core rings,” huge eddies that spin off the Gulf Stream and carry warm, salty water — and valuable squid — closer to shore.
“We started to recognize more and more what was happening,” said Mattera, who is also co-executive director of the Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island, an industry group. “ Now we sit down with these scientists, and we could have conversations for two days and never stop.”
The National Science Foundation has not set a timetable for final decisions on the future of the Ocean Observatories Initiative. Craig McLean, a former assistant administrator for research at NOAA who retired in 2022, said he is heartened by the agency’s “intelligent and mature” request for scientific input.
“The questions they’re asking are legitimate,” said McLean. But he remains wary of how the input will be used, and concerned about political interference in science.
“I’m not optimistic about anything that the Trump administration has control over,” he said. There is “mischief afoot.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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