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THE Trump administration is scrapping a $368 million ocean monitoring network, alarming scientists as record sea temperatures, a looming ‘super’ El Niño and threats to ocean currents intensify.
The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), run by the National Science Foundation, is a network of more than 900 sensors, moorings and underwater gliders deployed across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans since 2016. It provides continuous real-time data used to track ocean health, climate trends and marine ecosystems.
Under the planned ‘descope’, four of the five operating OOI arrays would be dismantled, with removal of the instruments expected to take up to 15 months. Scientists warn this would erase a decade of continuous ocean observations, making it harder to detect changes linked to extreme weather, fisheries and coastal impacts.
The decision comes as the administration rolls back climate protections and reduces funding for climate science, while also promoting deep-sea mining for critical minerals.
Researchers have described the observatory as ‘irreplaceable’, warning its loss would leave a major gap in global ocean monitoring.
The UN had warned this week that a potentially strong El Niño weather pattern could begin in a matter of weeks, driving up global temperatures on a planet already under strain from climate change.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said there is an 80 per cent chance of El Niño developing between this month and August, and a 90pc chance it will continue until at least November.
El Niño occurs when warmer ocean waters spread across the tropical Pacific, disrupting weather patterns around the world. The phenomenon is linked to higher global temperatures, droughts, heavy rainfall and heat waves.
The WMO said unusually warm subsurface waters in the tropical Pacific, more than 6C above average in some areas, are helping drive El Niño’s development.
Scientists warn that a strong El Niño, combined with human-caused climate change, could make 2027 one of the hottest years on record.
The last strong El Niño, in 2023-24, contributed to 2024 becoming the hottest year ever recorded.
Already, heat waves have scorched parts of the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia during the past few months.
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