Trump budget would cut ocean data and leave boaters, anglers and
forecasters scrambling for info
[May 19, 2025]
By TODD RICHMOND
Capt. Ed Enos makes his living as a harbor pilot in Hawaii, clambering
aboard arriving ships in the predawn hours and guiding them into port.
His world revolves around wind speeds, current strength and wave swells.
When Enos is bobbing in dangerous waters in the dark, his cellphone is
his lifeline: with a few taps he can access the Integrated Ocean
Observing System and pull up the data needed to guide what are
essentially floating warehouses safely to the dock.
But maybe not for much longer. President Donald Trump wants to eliminate
all federal funding for the observing system's regional operations.
Scientists say the cuts could mean the end of efforts to gather
real-time data crucial to navigating treacherous harbors, plotting
tsunami escape routes and predicting hurricane intensity.
“It’s the last thing you should be shutting down,” Enos said. “There’s
no money wasted. Right at a time when we should be getting more money to
do more work to benefit the public, they want to turn things off. That’s
the wrong strategy at the wrong time for the wrong reasons.”
Monitoring system tracks all things ocean
The IOOS system launched about 20 years ago. It's made up of 11 regional
associations in multiple states and territories, including the Virgin
Islands, Alaska, Hawaii, Washington state, Michigan, South Carolina and
Southern California.
The regional groups are networks of university researchers, conservation
groups, businesses and anyone else gathering or using maritime data. The
associations are the Swiss army knife of oceanography, using buoys,
submersible drones and radar installations to track water temperature,
wind speed, atmospheric pressure, wave speeds, swell heights and current
strength.
The networks monitor the Great Lakes, U.S. coastlines, the Gulf of
Mexico, which Trump renamed the Gulf of America, the Gulf of Alaska, the
Caribbean and the South Pacific and upload member data to public
websites in real time.
Maritime community and military rely on system data
Cruise ship, freighter and tanker pilots like Enos, as well as the U.S.
Navy and Coast Guard, use the information directly to navigate harbors
safely, plot courses around storms and conduct search-and-rescue
operations.
The associations' observations feed into National Weather Service
forecasts. The Pacific Northwest association uses tsunami data to post
real-time coastal escape routes on a public-facing app. And the Hawaii
association not only posts data that is helpful to harbor pilots but
tracks hurricane intensity and tiger sharks that have been tagged for
research.
The associations also track toxic algal blooms, which can force beach
closures and kill fish. The maps help commercial anglers avoid those
empty regions. Water temperature data can help identify heat layers
within the ocean and, because it’s harder for fish to survive in those
layers, knowing hot zones helps anglers target better fishing grounds.
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A lobstermen unties his boat before heading out to fish in Jonesport,
Maine, April 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
The regional networks are not formal federal agencies but are almost
entirely funded through federal grants through the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. The current federal budget allocates $43.5
million for the networks. A Republican bill in the House natural
resources committee would actually send them more money, $56 million
annually, from 2026 through 2030.
Cuts catch network administrators by surprise
A Trump administration memo leaked in April proposes a $2.5 billion cut
to the Department of Commerce, which oversees NOAA, in the 2026 federal
budget.
Part of the proposal calls for eliminating federal funding for the
regional monitoring networks, even though the memo says one of the
activities the administration wants the commerce department to focus on
is collecting ocean and weather data.
The memo offered no other justifications for the cuts. The proposal
stunned network users.
“We’ve worked so hard to build an incredible system and it’s running
smoothly, providing data that’s important to the economy. Why would you
break it?” said Jack Barth, an Oregon State oceanographer who shares
data with the Pacific Northwest association.
“What we’re providing is a window into the ocean and without those
measures we frankly won’t know what’s coming at us. It's like turning
off the headlights," Barth said.
NOAA officials declined to comment on the cuts and potential impacts,
saying in an email to The Associated Press that they do not do
“speculative interviews.”
Network's future remains unclear
Nothing is certain. The 2026 federal fiscal year starts Oct. 1. The
budget must pass the House, the Senate and get the president's signature
before it can take effect. Lawmakers could decide to fund the regional
networks after all.
Network directors are trying not to panic. If the cuts go through, some
associations might survive by selling their data or soliciting grants
from sources outside the federal government. But the funding hole would
be so significant that just keeping the lights on would be an uphill
battle, they said.
If the associations fold, other entities might be able to continue
gathering data, but there will be gaps. Partnerships developed over
years would evaporate and data won't be available in a single place like
now, they said.
"People have come to us because we’ve been steady," Hawaii regional
network director Melissa Iwamoto said. “We’re a known entity, a trusted
entity. No one saw this coming, the potential for us not to be here.”
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