Federal cuts sink Pacific Northwest ocean-monitoring buoys

Catch up quick: The Ocean Observatories Initiative was established in 2015 as a way to gather long-term data from roughly 900 sensors in the Pacific, Atlantic and off Greenland.

• The Coastal Endurance Array, in the Pacific Northwest, consists of research buoys off Newport and Grays Harbor, Washington, as well as underwater gliders and cables that collect real-time ocean data on temperature, current, ecosystems and extreme weather events.
• The worldwide network was designed to operate for at least 25 years. But last month, the initiative said the project was being "descoped" because of NSF cuts and that all equipment would be removed by next year.
• The buoy off the Oregon coast is slated for removal June 16.

Yes, but: Undersea cables that measure seismic activity will remain in place and operational in Oregon and Washington.

Follow the money: The initiative, which was deployed at a cost of $368 million, costs about $48 million a year to operate, per the Associated Press, though that doesn't include the significant cost of research vessels.

• There was no estimate for how much the buoy removal operation would cost.

What they're saying: The initiative is not being canceled, Michael England, a spokesman for the NSF, told the New York Times, but is moving to "a nimbler approach to prioritizing support for evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies."

• Democrats have vowed to fight the cuts, per the Times.

The bottom line: "It's a crippling loss of information," Ed Dever, an Oregon State professor who helped lead the initiative in the Pacific Northwest, told the Associated Press.

• Dever described the buoy removals as part of a broader disinvestment in federally funded climate research.
• "It seems to really mark the end of a federal commitment to basic scientific research — a commitment that has served this nation very well for the last 70 years."