{"id":426,"date":"2026-06-17T04:36:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T04:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=426"},"modified":"2026-06-17T04:36:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T04:36:02","slug":"alaskas-murkowski-among-congress-members-seeking-to-save-ocean-science-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=426","title":{"rendered":"Alaska\u2019s Murkowski among Congress members seeking to save ocean science network"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is among several members of Congress trying to prevent the National Science Foundation from dismantling portions of an instrument system that monitors the nation\u2019s oceans.<\/p>\n

Read more Senators weigh risk of gas pipeline project as special session deadline approaches<\/a><\/p>\n

The National Science Foundation plans to pull out much of the instrumentation in the Ocean Observatories Initiative system, which began operating in 2016 and was to last for three decades.<\/p>\n

The system has more than 900 instruments that track ocean conditions, including circulation and currents, temperature, marine life, weather events and data used to manage seafood harvests. Under the Trump administration, the National Science Foundation plans in the coming year to remove instruments from the waters off Alaska, as well as Washington state, Oregon, North Carolina and Greenland. The first removal is scheduled for Tuesday in waters off Oregon.<\/p>\n

In a sent Monday to Acting NSF Director Brian Stone, Murkowski and nine other senators urged the agency to reverse the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cEliminating most of this complex ocean monitoring system threatens the safety of our coastal communities while undermining our nation\u2019s ability to monitor coastal environments, marine currents, and extreme weather events,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

The system is especially important this year because of the powerful El Nino system that is developing in the Pacific Ocean and is poised to disrupt widespread weather patterns, the letter said. \u201cThe OOI system delivers crucial information about our ocean patterns and weather, reaching and touching all Americans. The effort to dismantle this vital network, jeopardizing decades of prior research, must be reversed in order to prioritize public safety,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n

The system is also of particular importance to Alaska\u2019s multibillion-dollar fishing industry, which has objected to the NSF move.<\/p>\n

A separate to Stone from 25 U.S. House Democrats called the decision \u201cabsurd.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision means that instead of paying for the valuable insights that can be gleaned from the 10-years-and-counting continuous monitoring, taxpayers are now paying for research vessels to span the ocean dredging up hundreds of pieces of instrumentation,\u201d they wrote. \u201cThis is pathetic. In a time of strained resources, the NSF is wasting time and money to destroy its own scientific infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Crews finish GCI fiber repair, restoring full service in the Aleutians<\/a><\/p>\n

Murkowski was the only Republican to sign either letter. Spokespeople for the two other members of Alaska\u2019s congressional delegation, Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich, also Republicans, did not respond to emailed queries about their positions on the Ocean Observatories Initiative changes.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the National Science Foundation defended the changes as a \u201cdescoping\u201d rather than a dismantling of the system. Descoping is a business neologism that usually refers to a reduction in the scope of a project or a weakening of a project\u2019s objectives.<\/p>\n

The system is not being canceled, the spokesperson said in an emailed message. \u201cAll previously collected OOI data will remain accessible through the OOI Data Center. The decision to descope aligns with NSF\u2019s wider strategy of a nimbler approach to prioritize support for evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies, as well as smart lifecycle management within its research infrastructure portfolio,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The decision to pull out ocean sensors is in line with other Trump administration policies and with the plans for ocean science described in Project 2025, a report issued in 2023 by the conservative Heritage Foundation that was seen as a blueprint for a second Trump administration. Russell Vought, the prime author of Project 2025, is now Trump\u2019s director of the Office of Management and Budget.<\/p>\n

Project 2025 called for the dismantling of NOAA\u2019s science operations, describing the agency as a \u201ccolossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.\u201d Deep cuts to NOAA orchestrated by billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have already affected fishery management.<\/p>\n

As for the National Science Foundation, the Trump administration is proposing a 55% funding cut for the coming fiscal year. That is on top of deep cuts made last year that resulted in mass firings and cancellation of more than 1,000 grants, most of them aimed at education.<\/p>\n

Read more Lawmakers fight to stop Trump administration\u2019s dismantling of $386M ocean observatory project<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The senator is the only Republican among about three dozen members protesting the Trump administration plans to pull out Ocean Observatories Initiative stations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAlaska\u2019s Murkowski among Congress members seeking to save ocean science network - Alaska Moving Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=426\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alaska\u2019s Murkowski among Congress members seeking to save ocean science network - 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