June 18, 2026 4:20 p.m.  

On Wednesday, U.S. Senators Democrat Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Republican Lisa Murkowski or Arkansas took to the Senate floor to successfully pass their bipartisan legislation that pauses the dismantling of the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative.

A joint release said this is a complex system of 900 ocean monitoring instruments that provides real-time, publicly available data for fishery management, coastal communities and fishermen across the nation.

The Saving the OOI Act is a simple two-page bill that says no federal funds shall be used to decommission the OOI system until the NSF conducts a thorough review and assessment of the network with robust stakeholder engagement. The legislation – which is less than 200 words, responds to the NSH’s plan to removed most of the OOI’s sensors off the coasts of Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina and Greenland.

Merkley said, “We are calling out an SOS – Save Ocean Sensors”. Merkley said, “Dismantling the Ocean Observatories Initiative is supreme stupidity, costing taxpayers millions of dollars and destroying a vital source of climate data”. Merkley said, “Our simple, bipartisan bill blocks this incredibly short-sighted decision and preserves these critical ocean monitoring sensors that keep coastal communities and fishers safe”.

The Saving the OOI Act was co-sponsored by ten other U.S. Senators and passed the Senate chamber unanimously.