The commercial fishing industry relies on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for everything from marine weather forecasts to fisheries data. But NOAA — which lost hundreds of employees in February when the Trump administration fired probationary staff — is in the administration's crosshairs again, according to a preliminary budget proposal from the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The budget calls for slashing NOAA's funding by more than 27% for fiscal year 2026. It also restructures the agency's fisheries division, shifting key responsibilities to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Frank Kelty, a fisheries consultant and former Unalaska mayor, said big changes like these could have major consequences for commercial fishing in Alaska.
"What are we going to do if we don't have weather information?" he asked. "People are going to go out and get sunk."
Kelty now serves as an advisor for the city of Unalaska, which operates the nation's largest fishing port by volume. He said reliable stock assessments and real-time data are critical to managing sustainable harvests.
"We're going to have a lack of information. And in the fisheries, timely information is critical," he said.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is one of eight groups around the nation that manage federal fisheries and recommend catch limits. Those responsibilities are laid out in the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the bedrock of federal fisheries policy. The groups rely on NOAA data to fulfill their mission.
North Pacific Council Executive Director David Witherell warned that the council would struggle to operate under the proposed cuts.
"Cuts of this magnitude will have significant impacts on fisheries in the North Pacific," he said.
Federal employees with NOAA's fisheries division, he said, are responsible for opening and closing fisheries, issuing permits, providing technical analysis and conducting monitoring programs to ensure harvest limits are not exceeded.
He also warned that reductions in scientific surveys would make stock assessments and ecosystem monitoring less precise.
"Inadequate scientific surveys result in unnecessary reductions in sustainable yields," he said. "Reduced surveys mean reduced confidence, which leads to lower catch limits."
Vice Chair Bill Tweit echoed those concerns. He spoke in a personal capacity, as the council is expected to issue an official statement this week.
"The basic cause for concern is twofold. One is just loss of the science," he said. "The other is the staff resources."
Tweit and Witherell both said diluting NOAA's mission would make it harder to attract and retain top-tier scientists, many of whom have already been under fire by the administration.
The council itself has already scaled back, according to Witherell. It has reduced staff, canceled travel and is holding meetings virtually. He warned that no viable private-sector alternatives exist to replace NOAA's data collection and analysis.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski called the proposal "more than concerning," but she emphasized that it was only a proposal and would still need to go through the budget process.
"I think it's too early to say," she said in an interview before the ComFish trade show in Kodiak. "Nobody really knows."
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan echoed Murkowski.
"No final funding decisions have been made about NOAA cuts and reorganizing efforts," Sullivan wrote in an email to Alaska Public Media. The email went on to say that Sullivan was "weighing in with the administration when such decisions would impact Alaska's economy."
The Trump administration can still change the numbers in the coming weeks before sending the proposed budget to Congress for review.
Alaska Public Media reporter Liz Ruskin contributed to this report.
