Alaska’s Fishing Communities Face Uncertain Future as Critical Ocean Monitoring System Gets Cut

'Absolutely crazy': Trump administration to dismantle crucial ocean monitoring system

In what a number of scientists suggested was the Trump administration’s latest effort to stop tracking the changing climate in hopes of convincing the public that the climate emergency isn’t happening, the National Science Foundation announced Monday that it was dismantling a crucial deep-ocean monitoring system that for years has helped researchers understand the impacts of the crisis on the world’s oceans.

Alaska’s Fishing Communities Face Uncertain Future as Critical Ocean Monitoring System Gets Cut

Alaska’s fishing industry and coastal communities are bracing for an uncertain future as the federal government prepares to shut down a vital ocean monitoring network. The National Science Foundation announced plans in May to decommission the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a $368 million system of deep-sea instruments that has been tracking critical ocean conditions. The timing couldn’t be worse for America’s top fish-producing state. Alaska is…