February 20, 2025 — The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Howard Lutnick as the secretary of the Department of Commerce despite fears that the Trump administration plans to cut NOAA funding or dismantle the agency altogether.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Commerce, which oversees such agencies as NOAA, was confirmed on a 51-45 vote, with no Democrat senators supporting his nomination.
February 14, 2025 — Longtime NOAA staffer Emily Menashes is currently leading NOAA Fisheries amid a leadership gap following the resignation of Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries Janet Coit last month.
The appointment is part of a temporary churn of leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Commerce as leaders appointed by then U.S. President Joe Biden step down to make room for U.S. President Donald Trump’s picks. As the Biden administration came to an end in January, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad, and NOAA Fisheries head Coit all resigned, leaving the nation’s top fisheries management positions needing to be filled.
February 14, 2025 — NOAA’s James J. Howard Marine Sciences Lab in Sandy Hook is in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s freeze on federal funding, Rep. Frank Pallone said this week.
Pallone, a Democrat and ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said $5 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding is unavailable which is putting jobs, research and critical infrastructure at the lab at risk.
The lab’s seawater intake supply infrastructure, essential for the lab’s core function, was set to be rehabilitated using IRA funds. Pallone said the freeze means the system is in jeopardy of total failure by April when contracts for critical maintenance staff expire. He said the system must now be manually shut down each night when maintenance staff leaves.
February 13, 2025 — Democrats in U.S. Congress are warning that rumored cuts to NOAA would endanger the agency’s ability to adequately manage the nation’s commercial fisheries.
“Last week, the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency entered NOAA facilities and accessed data and files,” U.S. Representative Val Hoyle (D-Oregon) said during a 12 February U.S. House Natural Resources Committee markup meeting. “Furthermore, NOAA employees are reporting rumors of severe budget cuts that would gut essential programs and jobs that our fishermen and our communities rely on. Basic responsibilities such as providing grants to regional fishery management councils for their operations and routine fisheries stock assessments could be delayed or canceled.”
February 13, 2025 — With the federal government following a blueprint to deter climate research at agencies like the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a private marine research nonprofit, are hoping to forge ahead with an experiment to explore how ocean waters might be used to absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
WHOI is awaiting approval from the Environmental Protection Agency on a permit to continue work initially scheduled for last summer off Martha’s Vineyard. It involves releasing 16,500 gallons of sodium hydroxide into the ocean to gauge its ability to improve the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide.
The experiment is now set to take place in an area called Wilkinson Basin, about 38 miles northeast of Provincetown. The period for public comments on the permit closes on Feb. 14.
The technique, known as ocean alkalinity enhancement, or OAE, has been the subject of laboratory experiments for decades, but this field test will be the first of its kind in U.S. waters. It aims to validate WHOI’s experiments that suggest OAE can effectively absorb carbon without harming the local environment.
A similar test that was set to take place off Martha’s Vineyard last fall was postponed when permitting was slowed by questions and additional monitoring requirements from the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to an August report in the Boston Globe. By the time the WHOI researchers got the green light, the U.S. Academic Research Fleet vessel needed for the experiment was not available, according to WHOI associate scientist Adam Subhas, the principal investigator of the project.
The Provincetown Independent
February 13, 2025 — If recent reports of a North Atlantic right whale calf and its mother spotted in a busy shipping lane between New Jersey and New York are any indication that more are to come, an artificial intelligence tool developed by Rutgers University scientists to protect them, among other marine mammals, could quiet the offshore wind debate over how to keep the endangered species safe from harm’s way.
On Feb. 3, an aerial team from the NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center spotted the right whale, identified as Accordion, named for the propeller scars on her back that resemble the instrument, and her calf, according to NOAA.
February 12, 2025 — Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) entered the offices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Silver Spring, Maryland a week ago. This earned criticism from former NOAA officials as well as members of the public.
NOAA’s mission stands to research and predict changes in the environment of the United States of America. This includes studies of weather, climate, oceans, and coasts. The organization was established in October of 1970 as part of the US Chamber of Commerce and currently contains multiple offices that help NOAA follow their mission. The National Weather Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Ocean Service, and more.
February 12, 2025 — Conservation advocacy group Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) plans to sue NOAA Fisheries after the agency missed deadlines for responding to its petition seeking Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for Chinook salmon in Alaska.
WFC announced in January 2024 that it was petitioning the government to implement protections for the species due to “the severe decline and poor condition of Chinook populations” in Alaska. WFC listed several factors contributing to the fish population’s drastic decline, including mixed-stock commercial and sport fishing, bycatch from industrial trawlers, climate change, logging and mining operations, and competition from hatchery-raised fish.
February 12, 2025 — You must renew your federal lobster permit and order new lobster trap tags if you intend to fish for lobsters in federal waters with trap gear during the 2025 fishing year. This guide outlines how to order your trap tags. You must renew your permit through the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office’s Fish Online. Fish Online is the website where you can submit electronic vessel trip reports, check your landings data, and manage your vessel’s permits. In some cases, you may be required to order trap tags through your state fisheries agency, as explained below.
To fish with lobster traps in federal waters, you must:
Once your federal permit is issued for fishing year 2025, we will forward the lobster management areas you select on your Federal permit renewal application to Cambridge Security Seals so they appear on your 2025 trap tags. Only fishing year 2025 tags purchased through CSS will be considered valid on or after June 1, 2025. If you purchase your trap tags through a state agency, you must choose the same lobster management areas on the state’s trap tag order forms that you have chosen on your Federal permit renewal application. You must attach a 2025 trap tag to each fished lobster trap.
The deadline for attaching the 2025 trap tags to your lobster traps is June 1, 2025. You are encouraged to renew your federal permit and apply for trap tags as soon as possible so that your tags can be authorized, manufactured, and mailed ahead of planned fishing activity.
Your federal lobster trap permit must be renewed before we will authorize CSS to issue tags for 2025.
February 6, 2025 — Democrats on Capitol Hill, and sources familiar with the situation, said the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has been inside the offices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The White House DOGE team is a cost-cutting initiative created by President Trump to find ways to trim federal spending. Billionaire Elon Musk is in charge of it, categorized as a “special government employee.”
Former NOAA officials told CBS News that current employees have been told to expect a 50% reduction in staff and budget cuts of 30%.
Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who represents the state where NOAA is headquartered, said his office is investigating DOGE’s work on NOAA, which includes such agencies as the National Weather Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.