The US Government under President Trump has begun dismantling a major oceanographic infrastructure network that has been studying coastal areas, marine ecosystems, and ocean currents for a decade.
Hundreds of scientific instruments deployed in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, under the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), are soon to be removed. The programme has largely been funded by the US government through the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Project leader Jim Edson informed the scientific community in late May that the initiative had been scaled down significantly.
Over the next 15 months, submerged infrastructure from four of the five active observation sites will be dismantled. At one site, removal has already begun.
An NSF spokesperson explained that the decision aligns with a broader strategy to refocus scientific priorities.
The network, which cost $368 million to establish, had been designed to operate for 25 years, providing crucial data to help researchers understand how oceans absorb greenhouse gases.
