Congress Must Block the Dismantling of the Ocean Observatories Initiative

I’m writing to urge you in the strongest possible terms to stop the dismantling of the Ocean Observatories Initiative. This is the work of a Republican government held captive to the demands of the fossil fuel industry, who will do anything to prevent progress and understanding of the climate crisis that they are causing. The NSF's May 21 notice to "descope" this $368 million deep-sea network is yet another reckless decision by Trump’s Administration of dismantlers that will permanently blind us to what is happening in our oceans. Once the infrastructure is pulled from sites off North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and the Irminger Sea, those real-time data streams are gone for good. This isn't a pause or a pivot to "emerging technologies." The expert team that built and runs this network is being dismantled alongside the hardware. Boston College oceanographer Hilary Palevsky has been direct: rebuilding would be extremely difficult because the institutional knowledge disappears with the instruments. After more than a decade of operation and continuous improvement, the OOI was delivering the world's most advanced continuously operating ocean observing systems, including critical data on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, a system whose collapse would be catastrophic. Block this dismantlement. Demand that NSF halt the phased infrastructure removal before the 15-month clock runs out and the damage becomes irreversible. The administration fired the independent NSF board and is now gutting the science that tracks what fossil fuel emissions are doing to our oceans. Taxpayers spent $368 million building this network. Destroying it doesn't save money — it destroys an irreplaceable public asset, and the loss to understanding our planet’s biggest environment, the ocean, cannot come at a worse time. Thank you for your attention to this matter.