Scientists on alert after some NOAA staff ordered to stop talking to people overseas

3 comments

1. Staff at a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been told this week to stop all contact with foreign nationals, including on international treaties and seafood catch limits, stoking confusion and fear among government scientists as the Trump administration begins to shape its vision for their work.

   The orders came from leaders of the National Marine Fisheries Service in all-staff meetings this week, according to multiple staff members, who spoke with The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the new administration. And the change has put some agency work — including efforts to set annual quotas on seafood harvests — on hold for the foreseeable future.

   At other branches of NOAA, international contact was facing heavy scrutiny, staff members said, raising questions about how easily they could carry out everyday work to monitor weather and atmospheric conditions — such as working with other countries to track tsunami risks across the Pacific Ocean, key to ensuring safety along the West Coast. NOAA produces government weather forecasts, conducts long-term climate monitoring and research, and manages the nation’s fisheries and marine mammals.

   Read more here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/02/06/noaa-fisheries-international-communication-doge/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/02/06/noaa-fisheries-international-communication-doge/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)

2. Keeping us all safe is going to be impossible without sharing data with other countries. period.

3. This is insane. 

   I work in a very related field and I can tell you that global information sharing of oceanic and atmospheric conditions is absolutely fundamental to critical systems like weather and ocean condition forecasting, emergency notifications for weather, national defense, and hurricane tracks among other things. Sure they also help climate research but that’s more of a bonus use of the data – the mission critical uses are all in public safety and national defense. The Americans are one of the biggest providers of that data worldwide and host several key databases like the World Ocean Atlas under NOAA.

   If the US disconnects from the global data network, it’s bad for Americans (who are at higher risk of natural disasters) and bad for all the surrounding countries (who won’t get the American data). 

   This is just. Bad.

Comments are closed.