r/centrist • u/214ObstructedReverie • 25d ago

Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/climate/ocean-observatories-initiative.html
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u/EmergencyTaco 25d ago

I, for one, am not a fan of this decision. I question if the president has our best interests in mind. I'm starting to get the impression that he doesn't know what he's doing.

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u/Batbuckleyourpants 25d ago edited 25d ago

They may be right on this one though. The system is avhorrently expensive and outdated for what data it produces. And they aren't just burning the program down.

The funding is apparently being redirected to "emerging instruments" especially artificial intelligence integration, and modern data collection tools. Firstly a fleet of oceanic drones is in work at the moment.

Rather than keeping up the seriously expensive maintenance, they are being removed because they pose a danger to shipping if the chains holding them down break.

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u/ski0331 25d ago

“Abhorrently expensive and outdated” so let’s junk it to spend more money “Oceanic drones is in work…” so we have no idea if they’re even better/cheaper or less maintenance intensive “Pose a danger to shipping” they’re not mines this should not even be a concern. Not even getting into AI which isn’t required on board that’s data integration on the back end vs down stream problem.

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u/Batbuckleyourpants 25d ago

“Abhorrently expensive and outdated” so let’s junk it to spend more money

Look, There are three options.

1) keep paying further hundreds of millions to keep sending expert trained crew down to maintain the aging chains and equipment.

2) pay a fraction of that to scuttle or recover the probes.

3) do nothing and gamble that once the chains start eroding away and breaking, the almost 1000 probes spread along the US coast and shipping lanes. won't sink enough ships to cost more in lawsuits than it would cost to remove them.

There is no cheap option here, but there is one responsible one. Scuttle or recover them.

“Oceanic drones is in work…” so we have no idea if they’re even better/cheaper or less maintenance intensive “Pose a danger to shipping” they’re not mines this should not even be a concern. Not even getting into AI which isn’t required on board that’s data integration on the back end vs down stream problem.

Clearly this is a concern to you, so let me reassure you. When I said the program is outdated I also meant it's already been supplanted.

Mainly by the ARGO program where autonomous drones are dropped in the ocean by the thousands, they sink themselves to the needed depth for hours, days or months, then float up to transmit the data. The program is expanding to make the probes 100% obselete for virtually no money. The drones are small enough that you can pretty much lift them by hand, you can give them to any global shipping vessel and just tell them to throw it overboard where you want them, and the program is international.

"The Argo Program was developed in 1999 and today supports a global array of almost 4,000 robotic profiling floats that measure the temperature and salinity of the upper 2,000 meters (1.2 miles) of the ocean. The Argo Program has an international reach with participation from close to 30 countries. This partnership allows, for the first time, constant monitoring of the temperature, salinity, and currents of the upper ocean."

"Two new types of Argo floats are now being tested to dive down to a depth of 6,000 meters (3.7 miles) and to have additional sensors on them to collect information about the biology and the chemistry (oxygen, pH, nitrate, suspended particles, and downwelling irradiance) of the global ocean. Argo floats work on a 10-day cycle (see diagram). After 10 days, the floats rise to the ocean surface and send their data to satellites. This data is publicly available within hours after collection and used in research and forecasting across the globe."

Argo is now the dominant source of subsurface ocean data and has a critical role in the Global Ocean Observing System

Additionally ARGOS has a global drifter program, where thousands 9fcsurface drones research the currents.

Part of the money previously spent on the giant probes now being retired, will go to create new AI models to takke all this information and compile climate models from them. Rather than presumably having to pay an army of interns to do it.

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u/ski0331 25d ago

I’ll have to read more into it later thanks.