Murkowski, Merkley press NSF for budget details on redeploying ocean sensors

A Redeployment Announcement, but Only Partial Funding

A commitment to keep a 900-instrument ocean monitoring network in the water does not by itself put removed sensors back. That gap is the subject of a bipartisan letter sent Thursday to National Science Foundation Acting Director Brian Stone by Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who asked the agency to account for which parts of the redeployment have approved budget authority and which are still waiting on it.

The Ocean Observatories Initiative, or OOI, is an NSF-funded network of roughly 900 deep-sea buoys and instruments that produce real-time data on ocean conditions, currents, and extreme weather. NSF had planned to disband about 80 percent of it, affecting data collection off Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Greenland. The US Senate unanimously passed the senators' Saving the OOI Act on June 17; the two-page bill bars federal funds for decommissioning until NSF completes a review that includes stakeholder engagement. The agency said the following day that it would halt further removals and redeploy the Endurance Array off Oregon after servicing.

The Money Is the Open Question

The Endurance Array devices have already been pulled from the water and still need to be redeployed, which requires agency funding and personnel. Without the restoration of full Endurance Array operations, the senators warned, Pacific Northwest researchers and fishermen will be left without access to critical data during the busy summer and fall months. "Budget uncertainties impact the OOI program's ability to retain the necessary personnel to operate and maintain the OOI, and we urge NSF to provide the budget certainty needed to hire and retain the personnel for redeployment, as well as ongoing operations and maintenance," Merkley and Murkowski wrote. The senators said NSF approved budget authority and ship time to resume some Endurance Array capabilities, but has not yet begun collecting stakeholder input despite committing in June to issue a Dear Colleague Letter and convene an expert panel.

The senators asked to be briefed on the panel's recommendations and implementation plans before those are finalized. No NSF response to the letter appears in the material released by the senators' offices.