Alaska organizations that provide weather and environmental information to mariners and subsistence hunters are bracing for funding cuts.
The Trump administration is considering slashing more than a quarter of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's budget in 2026, according to a draft memo. The cuts – which would have to be approved by Congress – would be especially deep for NOAA's fisheries services and research operations.
The Alaska Ocean Observing System is a NOAA program that provides boaters, fishermen and subsistence hunters with information about things like waves, currents and water temperatures to improve safety on the water. The executive director of the organization, Sheyna Wisdom, said the proposed budget would eliminate the program, as well as NOAA's overarching system that gathers ocean data nationally.
"It would completely shut us down. And we have projects across Alaska. We would be pulling assets out of the water," Wisdom said. "Alaskans particularly rely on the information that NOAA provides."
The organization's projects include supporting Indigenous observers who track changes in their communities, mapping whaling trails and monitoring harmful algal blooms.
In another project, hunters in Point Hope, Utqiaġvik, Wainwright and other Indigenous coastal communities collaborated with scientists to install buoys at popular subsistence locations to track wave heights. The buoys provide real-time data via an app about when it's safe to hunt whales, seals or walruses.
Marine Exchange of Alaska partnered with the program to install weather stations on vessels so that other boaters can get real-time conditions from remote areas, said Steve White, the organization's executive director. He said losing such initiatives would be a huge hit to a state that already lacks weather reporting.
"Up in Alaska, you've got to have good weather information. It could determine whether you die or whether you come back, whether you should go out on a boat or not," White said.
He added that the Alaska Ocean Observing System has "been instrumental in making Alaska a safer place for people out on the water."
If the Trump administration's proposed changes go through, Wisdom said it is still unclear if the program would have an alternative way to stay operational.
