Crucial ocean monitoring network saved from dismantling ahead of expected ‘super El Niño’

The Trump administration is backing off a plan to take apart an ocean monitoring system that scientists say is crucial to understanding how climate change is affecting ocean currents and marine ecosystems.

In May, the National Science Foundation announced it would begin removing “all in-water infrastructure” belonging to the Ocean Observatories Initiative, which collects data on climate and weather events, such as coastal flooding, ocean circulation and marine heat waves.

On Thursday, the science agency announced in a statement that, effective immediately, it would “not proceed with further removal or de-scoping of equipment.”

The move came after the Senate passed a measure Wednesday blocking the government from dismantling the system. Lawmakers in both parties warned that the administration’s actions were illegal and put coastal communities at risk.

The $386-million ocean initiative is a network of more than 900 ocean sensors that, over the last decade, has produced free data to the public and informed more than 500 scientific publications. The project was slated to run 15 to 20 more years.

The National Science Foundation had directed the removal of most of the system’s instruments from waters off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina and Greenland by 2027 — a decision that other scientists said came with no warning and no scientific review.

An independent federal agency established by Congress, the National Science Foundation described the move not as a cancellation but as a “descoping” aligned with a strategy to focus on “evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies.” The Trump administration’s proposed 2026 budget had included a 55% cut to the agency.

‘Supreme stupidity’

On Monday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers had sent letters to the National Science Foundation asking it to reverse course.

“Dismantling the O.O.I. was supreme stupidity,” Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon said in a statement Thursday.

Merkley and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska co-sponsored the measure to preserve the system, which was passed in the Senate by unanimous consent.

“We’ll keep fighting to ensure scientists, fishermen, and coastal communities can continue to utilize the critical data the OOI provides,” he said.

Murkowski said the data collected by the network was crucial as scientists say a super El Niño is forming in the Pacific.

“This is all happening at a time when everybody’s talking about El Niño and what that is going to bring in terms of the potential for extreme weather events,” she said. “This is not the time to be turning off one of our most valuable scientific assets.”

El Niño is a pattern of unusually warm water in the Pacific that can shift weather worldwide, often bringing wetter winters to Southern California.

The climate pattern developed over the last month and is expected to continue to strengthen. The National Weather Service has assessed a 63% chance of a “very strong” El Niño later this year that would rank among the most powerful on record since 1950.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, said in a statement that the “pathetic scheme” to dismantle the ocean network was illegal and she welcomed the reversal.

“My oversight team and I will be following closely what N.S.F. does next. N.S.F.’s next steps must be nothing short of replacing any of the instruments that have already been removed and ceasing all activities to de-scale until legitimate expert advice has been sought.”

In a June 3 statement, the NSF said its decision drew in part on a 2025 National Academies report on the future of ocean science. “NSF remains committed to ocean science and will continue working with the scientific community on high-priority research objectives,” it wrote.

Cuts seen as sign of broader retreat

The ocean observatory cuts were part of a broader retreat from environmental and climate-related science under President Trump’s administration, which has moved to scale back research programs, reduce staffing at agencies including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, and ease emission regulations.

The National Science Foundation said in a statement Thursday that it already had pulled some instruments from the water off the coasts of Oregon and Washington state, but it was “developing plans to redeploy the equipment after servicing.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.