Alaskans were among the hundreds of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees who began receiving firing notices this week, a blow to an agency that provides everything from weather forecasts to fisheries management to cutting-edge climate science in Alaska.
The cuts — part of a broader effort by the administration of President Donald Trump to drastically slash the federal workforce — came after other agencies, including the National Park Service, had abruptly fired probationary workers in recent weeks.
Nationally, more than 800 people across NOAA, an organization of 13,000 staff members, were fired, The New York Times reported Thursday.
In Alaska, it was not immediately clear how many had lost their jobs, but they included NOAA employees working on fishery research and weather monitoring, among other functions.
Alaska has roughly 450 NOAA employees, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management. In Alaska, NOAA responsibilities include a broad range of earth- and ocean-based science, including the National Weather Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, climate monitoring, marine commerce support and coastal restoration, among a long list of other programs, with operations and employees across the state.
The three members of Alaska’s all-Republican congressional delegation did not appear to know how many employees were fired. Employees reported that even higher-ups in the agency didn’t seem to have a handle on how many people had been cut.
Asked if they knew how many NOAA employees in Alaska had lost their jobs, U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III spokesperson Silver Prout said in a written statement that Begich’s office is “closely monitoring the reported terminations of NOAA employees in Alaska and actively gathering more information on the scope and impact of these staffing changes.”
“Ensuring the safety of Alaskans — whether it be for aviation, fisheries, or weather forecasting is a top priority for our office,” Prout said.
[Trump administration firings at Alaska parks and forests could harm tourism, industry representatives say]
A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said he “has been a staunch fighter for much of the critical work and services that NOAA provides to Alaska, which is home to the most expansive marine waters, the most coastline, the most seafood landings, and some of the harshest weather conditions of any state.”
“Senator Sullivan and his team are pursuing information on federal job cuts, weighing in with the Trump administration on positions that are the most critical for Alaska — including at NOAA — and fighting against cutting positions that threaten the safety of Alaskans or run counter to President Trump’s day one executive order to unleash Alaska’s economy,” spokesperson Amanda Coyne said in an email, referring to a separate Trump order meant to boost Alaska’s resource development industry.
Weather service already strained
The firings appeared to include at least some probationary-status meteorologists with the National Weather Service, who had hoped to be spared because they are considered essential workers for public safety, even in cases when the government shuts down and some employees are sent home.
Matthew Eovino wrote on the social media platform X that he had been fired Thursday from his job as a meteorologist in the Anchorage National Weather Service office.
“Seeing positions go unfilled and employees caught in bureaucratic limbo is concerning — not just for those of us personally affected, but for the long-term future of the NWS and its ability to carry out its critical mission,” he wrote in the post.
I never thought I’d be in this position, but I was unexpectedly terminated from my job as an NWS meteorologist. This isn’t just about me—this impacts the future of weather forecasting. #NWS #NOAA pic.twitter.com/DWKmz4IiWp
— Matthew Eovino (@MatthewEovinoWX) February 27, 2025
Emma Esquivel, a former executive assistant to the director of Alaska’s National Weather Service, told the New York Times that she’d been fired on Thursday afternoon via email, and given an hour and 21 minutes before losing access to her work computer.
Cuts to weather forecasting will have direct and potentially dire impacts on Alaskans, said Rick Thoman, a climate researcher affiliated with the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Staffing at National Weather Service offices is already stressed, Thoman said. On Thursday, the service sent out a notice that upper air observations in Kotzebue were being terminated, which Thoman said will result in less accurate weather forecasting. Staffing was cited as a reason.
After the firings — and departures of people who resigned — those issues will become even more serious, Thoman said.
“It’s unclear to me, from the outside, how some of these offices will continue,” he said. “I don’t know if they have enough human beings left to run 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week operations.”
It’s already hard to get employees to come to Alaska, work for the weather service and stay long-term, he said.
With the firings, “you’re gonna have less eyes on the weather,” he said. “You’re going to lose a lot of that expertise.”
Dan Owen, a commercial pilot and owner and operator of Alaska Air Transit, said that he had noticed an increase in turnover in Anchorage’s weather service office even before Trump came into office.
”My own impression is that there aren’t very many highly seasoned, experienced forecasters remaining,” he said, leading him to have less confidence in weather forecasts already.
”Well, if they’re going to start whacking the weather service even further, it cannot help,” said Owen.
During a joint press conference earlier in February, members of Alaska’s congressional delegation acknowledged that even prior to workforce reductions, Alaska’s weather stations were regularly inoperable. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said at the time that of Alaska’s 150 automated weather observing systems, maintained by NOAA, 50 weren’t functioning that day.
Murkowski did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday about the firings that had occurred this week.
‘Wondering if I chose the wrong profession’
NOAA scientists conduct a broad variety of fisheries-related functions, including observation programs for commercial fisheries, as well as stock assessments that set sustainable harvest goals.
Alaskans who lost their jobs included Juneau and Kodiak residents working for the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and NOAA regional office.
Sabrina Donnellan was among them, along with about five of her co-workers, she said Friday. Donnellan worked for a decade to secure her NOAA job, she said.
Last fall, Donnellan and her husband and toddler uprooted their lives in the Anchorage area to move to Juneau for what she considered a dream job as the technical services and records branch supervisor for NOAA’s Alaska Regional Office, a job that involved overseeing public records requests, producing information for lawsuits and supporting regulatory staff.
She’d been working toward the position since college, she said.
“I’ve actually been working in commercial fisheries for the state for 10 years, and I finally had enough education and work experience to get a job with NOAA Fisheries,” she said. “It takes quite a bit of experience to qualify there.”
On Thursday, she was fired in an email telling her that her skills no longer served the needs of the federal government.
That left Donnellan and her spouse with a lease expiring in March amid a perpetual Juneau housing crunch, a toddler who’d finally gotten into child care and a single income.
It’s hurtful to hear people denigrate federal employees, Donnellan said.
“I’ve worked for the state and the federal government, and most people are incredibly hardworking and care, especially in fisheries,” she said. “They truly care about the work, myself included. I’ve found myself now wondering if I chose the wrong profession, if I wasted all my time.”
‘The impact is really large’
Losing even some of NOAA’s services will have an impact on major federally managed fisheries, said Curry Cunningham, an associate professor affiliated with the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
“The impact is really large,” he said. “We’re a commercial fishing state, and so when we think about federally managed fisheries, we’re talking about crab, we’re talking about pollock, we’re talking about research that is attempting to mitigate the impacts of bycatch from other fisheries on key resources like chinook salmon and chum salmon. It’s a big deal.”
[Earlier coverage: With resignation offer on the table, what does Alaska’s federal workforce look like?]
Alaska has long been “the gold standard” for quality of data provided by NOAA ecosystem and fisheries resource surveys, said Cunningham.
“Historically when NOAA loses funding, surveys are often cut, which reduces the quality and timeliness of the data available to inform management,” he said. “In turn, this means stock collapses are more difficult to detect, and therefore commensurate reductions in fishing effort for conservation may not be as timely.”
That scenario could also mean delays in recognizing increased populations, causing harvesters to miss out, he said.
If NOAA surveys or research are missed, it’s like “steering the management boat blindly,” he said.
The impact on Alaska’s already ailing commercial fishing industry could be significant, according to Kinsey Brown, a Cordova-based fisherman and researcher.
“When it comes to the federal fisheries, we are relying on NOAA for reliable stock assessments that keep our business running and that keep the overall business long-term sustainable,” said Brown, who operates a commercial fishing vessel with her husband. “As commercial fishermen, we’re using NOAA weather data and data from buoys to keep us not only safe but efficient in our operations on a day-to-day basis.”
“Fishermen these days are using a lot of technology to make the best decisions, to keep them safe but also profitable,” Brown said. “Losing reliability in data — a small disruption — could really have unintended consequences.”
Michelle Stratton, director of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, said in a letter to council stakeholders Friday that “NOAA’s efforts to ensure maritime safety through accurate weather forecasting, navigation services, and emergency response coordination are vital.”
“Reducing NOAA’s role and resources in these areas could lead to increased risks for those working at sea, including higher incidents of accidents, loss of life, damage and loss of property, and economic hardships for fishing families,” said Stratton.
In addition to fishing, Brown also researches fishing communities and their resilience in the face of different environmental and economic conditions for the Prince William Sound Science Center. She is currently working on a project funded by NOAA.
“We have just been in a small holding pattern for a while, not knowing what the long-term future of that project looks like,” she said. “I think we’re kind of waiting for the final pin to drop on a lot of that.”
She said she hasn’t yet heard from NOAA on changes to her project, but she’s already considering the question: “How do we still deliver something that’s valuable to our community and to the fishery with a truncated timeline and a cut budget?”
“Investing in Alaska seafood, and the fishermen that produce it, is a good investment,” she said. “An investment in any body that helps us gather data about fisheries and their health is valuable to fishermen and to the seafood industry.”
One of the most chilling aspects of the firings is on recruitment and retention, said Cunningham.
“The people who are being released from federal service right now … are the future of federal fisheries,” he said. “And right now we’re losing those people. They’ll take other jobs. They’ll move out of state, and that’s the scariest thing for me.”
[Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported Curry Cunningham’s university affiliation. Cunningham works for the University of Alaska Fairbanks, not the University of Alaska Southeast. ]
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