NOAA Fisheries under threat, according to reports

Reports by various news outlets, including The New York Times, CNN and the scientific journal Science, indicate that the Trump administration plans to make radical changes and drastic funding cuts to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including closing down all of the agency's climate-related research.

NOAA is the US federal agency responsible for the country's National Weather Service, in addition to overseeing ocean and coastal ecosystems and marine resource and fisheries management, through NOAA Fisheries (the National Marine Fisheries Service).

CNN reports that it has seen internal documents detailing the budget proposal for 2026, indicating the Trump administration wants to close down NOAA research and eliminate all of its weather and climate labs, in addition to "defunding" both the National Ocean Service and National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries), among other entities.

The proposed changes would include transferring oversight of marine fisheries management to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), which is part of the Interior Department, according to CNN.

Currently, USFWS has responsibility for inland and freshwater species, endangered species, and land-based conservation, whereas NOAA Fisheries manages marine species, with responsibilities including fishery management plans, stock assessments, catch limits and habitat protection, in addition to enforcement and monitoring.

In total, the budget cuts would amount to USD 1.6 billion, according to The New York Times, including cutting NOAA research office’s funding by approximately 75%.

The proposed changes would first need to be approved by the US Congress in order to take effect.

The Trump administration's proposed funding cuts and plans to entirely eliminate NOAA's climate research have caused alarm and outcry from current and former NOAA personnel, in addition to other stakeholders.

In comments published by Politico, former NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said he believed the proposed budget cuts and organisation changes amounted to "step one in the deconstruction of the agency," adding, "Any one of these [actions] are by themselves destructive enough. But taken together they foretell a much more calamitous outcome.”

Calling the budget plan for NOAA "both outrageous and dangerous", House Representative Zoe Lofgren, who is the leading Democrat on the Science Committee said, "The White House seems to think that our science capabilities operate in vacuums from one another. That is not the case. It’s a holistic system, and each piece of the agency is critical to strengthening the accuracy of weather forecasting and data, and then providing that data to the people who need it. [...] This budget will leave NOAA hollowed out and unable to perform its life-saving work."

Meanwhile, Beth Lowell, Oceana’s Vice President for the United States, called the proposals "ludicrous". “Whether you live on a coast or in the heartland, these proposed cuts to NOAA will impact you,” she stated in a press release.

"Eliminating funding and staffing won’t just cause chaos and confusion within NOAA – it would undermine people and businesses across the country," she added, calling on Congress to "act to stop the dismantling of NOAA that would directly threaten the millions of Americans that depend on healthy oceans for their jobs, businesses, and seafood dinners.”

The news follows a spate of recent layoffs of NOAA research staff, hundreds of whom were fired in February, rehired in March following a court order, then sent another firing notice on Thursday last week after a US Supreme Court ruling.

According to US media reports, the proposed cuts would also see an end to the longrunning Sea Grant program for oceanographic research and education.

Established by the National Sea Grant College Program Act of 1966, the Sea Grant program is a national network of 34 partnerships between universities, government agencies, and coastal communities focused on research, education, and outreach related to coastal and marine environments, including supporting aquaculture development.