March 19, 2025 — Sarah Cierpich isn’t holding her breath after learning her termination from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been ‘rescinded.’
The Bourne resident received a letter on March 17 from the U.S. Department of Commerce saying her Feb. 27 termination has been stayed by a federal judge. Her termination was part of the ongoing effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to slash the size of the federal bureaucracy and budget.
According to the letter, she was reinstated to her position “retroactive to the effective date of your termination, and placed in a paid, non-duty status until such time as this litigation is resolved or the Department of Commerce determines to take other administrative action with respect to your employment.”
Cierpich was a fisheries management specialist working out of Woods Hole. She managed NOAA’s observer deployment systems and worked on algorithms for a program that put trained observers on commercial fishing vessels. Observers collect data that is used in fishery stock assessments and fisheries management measures.
“It’s data on marine mammals, turtles, birds, information on all creatures in the ocean and the sustainability of that resource,” she said in an interview March 13. “It ensures the long-term sustainability of commercial fishery resources.”