Overview
- The National Science Foundation will send research ships in June to start removing over 900 deep‑sea instruments from OOI arrays in the Pacific Northwest, Gulf of Alaska, the U.S. East Coast and the Irminger Sea.
- The recovery is planned as a phased operation expected to take about 15 months while the Regional Cabled Array, the OOI data center and program office will remain operating through at least September 30, 2028.
- NSF frames the move as lifecycle management that frees funds for emerging technologies and shifting research needs, a rationale that follows a 2025 National Academies review that recommended 'revisioning' OOI but did not call for wholesale dismantling.
- Scientists warn the loss will end continuous, real‑time below‑surface measurements used to study ocean carbon uptake, marine heat waves, fisheries impacts and ocean circulation such as the AMOC, and Democratic lawmakers have pledged to contest the decision.
- Built around 2015–2016 for roughly $368 million with about $48 million in annual operating costs, OOI produced more than a decade of data used in hundreds of studies and experts say replacing continuous long‑term observations would be costly and technically difficult.