April 15, 2025 — U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has named a new head of NOAA Fisheries, the agency charged with managing the nation’s commercial fisheries, even as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump plans on slashing the regulator’s budget and moving its functions to the U.S. Department of Interior.
On 14 April, the government announced that former commercial fisherman and officeholder Eugenio Piñeiro Soler will serve as assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries.
April 15, 2025 — Owen Liu was hired to help solve a mystery.
Fishers had been plying the Pacific Ocean in search of hake, a species making up one of the most lucrative fisheries on the West Coast.
But the catch hadn’t met expectations for a decade, Liu said.
Liu was tapped last year to unravel the conundrum. He was developing a tool to help understand Pacific hake distribution — before being fired by the Trump administration along with more than 600 other National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration probationary employees.
Since then, Liu and his fired colleagues have been caught up in political turmoil, which has landed in federal court and led to rehirings and refirings as recently as last week.
In interviews with The Seattle Times, some of these Western Washington NOAA fisheries scientists described feeling like they’d been in “limbo” or “purgatory” and expressed a desire to get back to work.
Nineteen probationary employees who worked at the Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Science centers have been among those hanging in the balance, according to Nick Tolimieri, a union representative for local NOAA employees. There are about 400 people in the bargaining unit across the science centers, Tolimieri said.
The scientists who shared their stories inform and set salmon fisheries quotas and identify priority salmon habitat recovery work. They were hired to forecast climate impacts, like low-oxygen conditions and marine heat, on fisheries and provide data to reduce the risk of whale entanglements, among other things.
The loss of staff comes at a time when climate change is fueling a higher degree of uncertainty for fisheries managers and the fishing communities who depend on them. A study published last week found opportunities to make fish populations and fishing communities more resilient to climate impacts, but authors of the paper say deep cuts to NOAA may jeopardize those opportunities.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. A NOAA fisheries spokesperson said the agency could not discuss “internal personnel and management matters” and “remains dedicated to its mission, providing timely information, research, and resources that serve the American public …”
At the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Montlake, scientists are taking on additional work as contracts with janitorial, maintenance and other services lapsed because of Trump administration actions.
They lost their only oceanographer — someone who can untangle complex ocean environmental patterns — and picking up the responsibilities of their other terminated colleagues would require reducing or losing additional services they provide.
The Alaska and Northwest Fisheries Science centers and the two fishery management councils they advise are global leaders in developing sustainable approaches to fisheries management, said Bill Tweit, who represents Washington on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.
April 15, 2025 — Eugenio Piñeiro Soler was appointed as assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries Monday by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. For 30 years a commercial fisherman, captain and entrepreneur, Piñeiro Soler was deputy assistant secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere in the first Trump administration.
Piñeiro Soler served as chairmen of the Caribbean Fishery Management Council from 2001 to 2010, and was a U.S. representative to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the International Whaling Commission, and the Marine Protected Area Federal Advisory Committee.
April 15, 2025 — The Trump administration’s proposed 2026 federal budget would slash Department of Commerce funding by more than 25%, eliminating the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research program and targeting other climate, ocean and fisheries programs within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Oceanic and Atmospheric program funding would be reduced by $485 million to $171 million, according to news media reports on the Office of Management and Budget document that began circulating among NOAA staffers and leaked to news organizations April 11 in Washington.
April 15, 2025 — The following was released by National Fisheries Institute:
The National Fisheries Institute congratulates Eugenio Piñeiro
Soler on his appointment to serve as the new Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries. We
commend the administration for working quickly to fill this vital position and for choosing a
seasoned veteran of the council management system and Magnuson-based fisheries policy. We
look forward to working with him.
April 14, 2025 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, with concurrence from the White House, named Eugenio Piñeiro Soler as Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries. Mr. Piñeiro Soler has assumed his new position, taking the helm from Acting Assistant Administrator Emily Menashes, who will return to her previous position as Deputy Assistant Administrator for Operations.
As Assistant Administrator, Mr. Piñeiro Soler will oversee the federal agency responsible for managing our nation’s marine fisheries and conserving protected marine species.
Mr. Piñeiro Soler has enjoyed a long and illustrious life in fisheries management. In a career that has spanned over 30 years, he has been a successful commercial fisherman, fisheries captain, and entrepreneur in his home island of Puerto Rico and throughout the Caribbean.
Mr. Piñeiro Soler has been part of multiple oceanic conservation and administrative organizations. These include the Caribbean Fishery Management Council, for which he served as Chair from 2001 to 2010, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the International Whaling Commission, and the Marine Protected Area Federal Advisory Committee. In the first Trump Administration, Mr. Piñeiro Soler served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. He brings a wealth of experience to this new role.
He received his bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Radford University, followed by his Juris Doctor from the Catholic University Law School of Puerto Rico. He has also conducted research on deepwater snappers with scientists from Texas A&M University and discovered Odontanthias hensleyi, a new species of jewelfish, while conducting research with the NOAA Fisheries Competitive Research Program.
Eugenio Piñeiro Soler brings extensive managerial and leadership experience to NOAA Fisheries, having worked at the intersection of policy and science throughout his career. Mr. Piñeiro Soler’s passion for these issues is evident and he will work with NOAA Fisheries’ various partners, industries, and constituencies to promote the economic benefits of U.S. fisheries and ensure smart management of our nation’s fisheries and trust resources.
Apirl 14, 2025 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this week fired its previously reinstated probationary workers, including many who worked at local facilities in Narragansett and Woods Hole.
NOAA employees in Rhode Island and Massachusetts told The Publics Radio that they received a mass email on Thursday informing them their jobs had been terminated – again. The NOAA firings were also reported by The Guardian and Reuters.
Until Thursday, the employees had been in a state of paid limbo. But the March 17 order that reinstated the fired NOAA employees to a form of paid leave “is no longer in effect,” according to an email shared with The Public’s Radio. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s general counsel in Washington, D.C. said in the email that “the Department is reverting your termination action to its original effective date.”
“Everyone I know who was in my situation has received the same message,” said Sarah Weisberg, a fisheries biologist formerly with NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Centers in Rhode Island. “Everyone who had been reinstated,’’ she said, “has now been un-reinstated.”
April 14, 2025 — A new Trump proposal would eliminate nearly all National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration labs focused on studying the world’s weather, climate and oceans and would slash much of the agency’s budget — part of what the White House document describes as an effort to sever all “climate-related programs” from the agency.
Documents detailing the administration’s proposal, reviewed by The Washington Post, would cut NOAA’s $6.1 billion budget by 27 percent overall, while effectively eliminating a research branch of the agency whose mission is to improve weather and climate forecasts, natural disaster warnings, and understanding of the natural world.
The programs are “misaligned with the President’s agenda and the expressed will of the American people,” the document says.
With the plan, the Trump administration has significantly accelerated its attacks on climate science, while opening itself to further criticism that it is handicapping the country’s ability to protect itself from natural disasters by cutting crucial and popular weather forecasting programs.
April 14, 2025 — Scallop fishing in Maine has been shut down for most fisherman this season, the NOAA says that the order is effective on Friday.
Scallop fishing regulations require fisheries to close once officials project that 100 percent of the allowed set-aside is taken.
April 14, 2025 — The Trump administration wants to eliminate several programs that benefit Pacific salmon, the iconic but widely threatened species of the Pacific Northwest.
Much of the effort to keep Pacific salmon from disappearing is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
An internal document from the Office of Management and Budget, reviewed by KUOW, calls for eliminating NOAA’s Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, as well as national grant programs for species recovery, interjurisdictional fisheries, and habitat conservation and restoration.
Overall, NOAA would see a 27% cut in its $6 billion budget under the White House proposal, which has not been finalized and is subject to Congressional approval.
In 2023, the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund distributed $107 million to states and tribes, with Washington state receiving $26 million, more than any other recipient. Coastwide, the fund restored 3,624 acres of salmon habitat in 2023 and removed obstacles enabling salmon to reach an additional 202 miles of spawning streams, according to NOAA.
“It’s very troublesome because we just want to get the work done and get our salmon back,” Lummi Nation Councilmember Lisa Wilson said.