There's a new setback for oceans, already affected by warming temperatures, pollution, over-fishing and other factors. Now the Trump administration is ending a deep-ocean observation system in the Atlantic and Pacific that monitors coastal environments, marine ecosystems and currents influencing global climate. More than 900 scientific instruments were put in place in 2016 by the National Science Foundation, which planned to collect data for 25 years. Scientists benefited by downloading real-time temperature, acidity and oxygen content data from remote ocean instruments, via unmanned gliders and robot watercraft, rather than making difficult, dangerous and expensive trips to sea each year.

The Ocean Observatories Initiative, which cost $370 million to create and $48 million yearly to maintain, was part of international collaboration among researchers. Goals included better understanding how oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and how marine heat waves might affect fisheries or signal bigger climate shifts that affect coastal flooding. Government opponents of the effort say it's "the source of much of [a federal agency's] climate alarmism."

Democrats in Congress pledge to fight the plan. Other defenders include Professor Helen Findlay, a biological oceanographer at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in Massachusetts, who says: "Sustained ocean observations are how we detect emerging risks in real time, from shifts in circulation to changes in chemistry and ecosystem health. . . . Scaling back the very systems that help us track these shifts risks leaving society unprepared for their consequences." Spending on the observation network was small compared with the value of expanded knowledge of the oceans and climate, says Craig McLean, acting chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during Donald Trump's first presidential term. "This reflects the further lack of understanding that the current administration has of scientific value and scientific merit," the retired official adds. "By dismantling such a system, we push the United States back yet again into a rear seat in global scientific leadership."

Instruments being removed over the next 15 months are the latest example of Trump administration changes in health and science spending. Since his second term began in January 2025. The decision announced two weeks ago is "a continuation of the administration's war on science," comments Sen. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts. "The Trump administration thinks that burying the data will help them kill our momentum to take climate action." The administration says its primary goal is to safeguard taxpayer money. Separately, a pending proposal would require all federal grants to be approved by political appointees to ensure that the money would "demonstrably advance the president's policy priorities." Approved researchers would be limited on subjects they can explore and foreign labs with which they may collaborate. That could "devastate innovation, science and research," warns the American Public Health Association's leader.

Senator says: "Defunding a program that helps researchers and scientists track changes in currents and flooding conditions is shortsighted and, ultimately, will end up costing American taxpayers more not less." – Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

Researcher says: "If anything, this moment should strengthen, not weaken, our commitment to sustained ocean observation and climate research." -- Helen Findlay of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in Masschusetts

Oceanographer says: "There's a lot of expertise that has the potential to be lost." -- Hilary Palevsky, earth and environmental sciences professor at Boston College