Rebecca Howard, on a 2019 Bering Sea survey cruise, stands next to a muddy trawl net catch of bottom dwelling creatures. Seattle-based Howard was one of the Alaska Fishery Science Center biologists who was terminated by NOAA Fisheries in late February. (Photo courtesy of Rebecca Howard)
Rebecca Howard is a marine biologist who spent six years in graduate school — largely funded by federal scholarship dollars — to earn a doctorate at Oregon State University. Last April, she was hired by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries branch to join in annual surveys off Alaska that gather data vital to the management of the nation’s biggest seafood harvests.
This year, the Seattle-based Howard was scheduled to spend three weeks aboard a chartered fishing boat sampling Gulf of Alaska marine life, and another three weeks on a Bering Sea survey. But on Feb. 27, more than 10 months into a yearlong probation, she received an email from a NOAA vice admiral informing her that she was being terminated. Her ability, knowledge “and/or skills” no longer fit the agency’s needs.
“This is what I wanted to do. I wanted to stay at this job,” Howard said in an interview from Seattle, where she worked at the main branch of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “It was a huge disappointment.”
Howard was one of the 13 staffers fired from the science center, a roughly 5% cut of that scientific workforce, according to sources with NOAA Professional Employees Association, a union representing much of the staff. She was an early casualty in what is expected to be a widening wave of staffing cuts in NOAA Fisheries offices and research hubs in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and other coastal regions as President Donald Trump’s administration unleashes a broader campaign to slash federal spending.
NOAA Fisheries has declined to release numbers on the scope of the cutbacks to date, which has left congressional delegations scrambling to try to track the force reductions in Alaska and other states. Meanwhile, NOAA and other branches of the federal governments must develop plans, due March 13 for more substantial workforce reductions, according to a Feb. 26 memorandum from the two executive branch offices .
NOAA Fisheries plays a huge role in managing the U.S. seafood harvest, most of which unfolds within a 200-mile federal zone off the nation’s coasts and in 2022 were valued at nearly $6 billion in commercial landings. The agency’s key responsibilities also include ongoing research to help track the populations of marine mammals, fish and other marine species.
All of this makes America’s fishing fleets tightly tied to the labor of NOAA workers whose tasks range from performing stock surveys that help prevent overfishing to drafting harvest regulations that open harvest seasons.
And, within the ranks of NOAA Fisheries, and among some in the fishing industry, there is a growing unease that the agency’s ability to carry out core missions could be undermined by the Trump administration’s push to shrink the federal government.
“The indiscriminate firing of NOAA personnel could cripple our fisheries,” said Linda Behnken, executive director of the Sitka-based Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association. “The impact to resources and the seafood industry will be substantial unless the administration corrects course.”
The first round of NOAA Fisheries staffing cuts have been accompanied by a freeze on most credit card spending. One Alaska Fisheries Science Center biologist, who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation, said she would typically use her credit card to buy gloves, life vests, extension cords and other gear needed for upcoming survey cruises off Alaska.
“I am trying to figure out how to supply our surveys with the gear we really need. It’s really frustrating,” the biologist said. “We’re going to do our best.”
NOAA Fisheries credit cards also are typically used to finance hotels and other expenses for staffers to attend meetings of regional fishery councils, which are a mix of federal state, industry and other representatives who help develop harvest limits and other rules for fisheries.
“The only travel that is being authorized right now is mission critical,” said Jennifer Quan, the West Coast regional administrator, who was one of the few NOAA Fisheries officials authorized to attend a Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting that began last week in Vancouver, Washington. The council covers Northwest and California federal fisheries.
In her opening remarks, Quan also said, “We are still, in general, in a state of mourning over the loss of staff,” but did not offer any details about the layoffs, so far, in the West Coast offices. During a Thursday public comment period at the Pacific council meeting, union representatives said the Northwest Fisheries Science Center had nine probationary members terminated who belonged to their chapter. They included an oceanographic modeler and a scientist studying the changing migration patterns of hake — also known as whiting — which sustain a major Northwest commercial trawl fishery.
The Trump administration policies to shake up the federal bureaucracy also have created new regulatory challenges for NOAA Fisheries. Trump’s executive orders include a request for a 60-day freeze on any new regulations, as well as a separate initiative to remove 10 regulations for every new one that is put in place.
These orders are complicating the publication of rules in the federal register to open some fisheries that are supposed to happen in the weeks ahead.
Quan cited these executive orders in her Thursday remarks to the Pacific Fishery Management Council. “We are still awaiting explicit guidance” on how to proceed, she said.
In Alaska, commercial fishers are unsettled by the prospect of not getting rules published, and individual fishing quotas allocations made by regional NOAA Fisheries officials, in time for a planned March 20 opening of the halibut and sablefish (also known as black cod) harvests. Halibut fisheries also are scheduled to open off British Columbia on that date, and Alaska fishers don’t want to be beaten to the early market by Canadian competitors, according to Behnken, the longliner association executive director.
In response to an inquiry from the Alaska Beacon, a NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman said, “The annual process for authorizing the halibut and sablefish fisheries is ongoing, and we will inform fishery participants if we anticipate a delay in issuing individual fishing quota or opening the commercial halibut or sablefish fishery on March 20, 2025.”
The uncertainty over the regulatory process also was noted by industry representatives in a March 4 letter sent by 170 fishing businesses and associations to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
“U.S. fisheries are heavily dependent on the regulatory process to open the fishing season and implement reasonable management measures, and any delays or inconsistencies can have immediate and severe consequences for our fishermen’s livelihoods,” said the letter.
As they brace for the next round of staff cuts, NOAA Fisheries regional leaders have struggled to maintain morale.
A federal fisheries employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to concerns about retaliation, said regional staff were asked to identify what work is necessary to perform legally required tasks. But the details of the force reduction plan are expected to be “determined up the chain.”
Some NOAA workers also have been angered by the tactics of billionaire Elon Musk, who launched the U.S. DOGE Service with the stated goal of increasing federal efficiency. In a February email that Musk directed to be sent from the Office of Personnel Management, federal employees were told to list five things they had done the previous week or risk losing their jobs.
“This was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email,” Musk wrote in a Feb. 23 post on X, the social media platform that he owns. “Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don’t get it yet but they will.”
Andrew Dimond, a Juneau-based Alaska Fisheries Science Center biologist, got the email when there was still hope he would survive his yearlong probation in a new job that offered more stability and opportunities for advancement than the contract and shorter-term positions he had held since 2015.
Dimond’s survey work involved weeks at sea pulling 12-, sometimes 14-hour days, on deck for tasks such as tagging black cod as they came on board, and pulling out ear bones for sampling. His other tasks included surveying Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska, which, in the aftermath of ocean warming, helped to predict a huge downturn in the stocks.
Dimond has tried to not pay much attention to Musk’s belittling of federal workers.
“I’m disappointed it gets the attention it does,” Dimond said. “Because I like the work. It’s great, but the people are too. They’re all hard workers that care about the things they do.”
On Feb. 27, Dimond received the same form notification as Rebecca Howard, informing him of his termination by a NOAA vice admiral. That email came 11 days before his probationary status would have ended.
Since then, there have been changes to an Office of Personnel Management memorandum that set the stage for the layoff of probationary workers. The revised document, updated on March 4, said it was up to the agencies to decide whether to discharge these workers.
Both Dimond and Howard hope they will get asked back to their jobs. If not, they hope to find some way to regain their jobs through an administrative appeal process or, perhaps, the courts.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.