Trump budget would cut ocean data, leave boaters, anglers, forecasters scrambling for info

CAPT. Ed Enos makes his living as a harbour pilot in Hawaii, clambering aboard arriving ships in the predawn hours and guiding them into port.

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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 harbours, 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."

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.