US research buoys are caught in currents of change

Following an 80% budget cut last year, the National Science Foundation began pulling research buoys from Pacific Northwest waters, prompting backlash from scientists, tribes, and fishers who rely on the data. Congress restored funding, but an NSF spokesperson still described the agency's approach as pursuing something 'nimbler,' before the agency reversed course entirely in June and began redeploying buoys.

Oceanographer Jan Newton, who runs a regional ocean-observing network, said she thinks the NSF didn't realize how widely its data was used beyond scientific papers. The Quinault Indian Nation lost early-warning data on marine mortality events, with fisheries biologist Joe Schumacker noting the tribe was reduced to counting dead crabs on the beach after the fact, calling the cut 'a money loser, not a money-saver.' The National Data Buoy Center's separate 100-buoy tsunami and weather network was untouched throughout.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.