Fearing Trump cuts, NOAA workers in WA hold ‘Save Our Science’ rally

Raincoat- and boot-clad students, scientists and neighbors were among the dozens waving signs outside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center early Wednesday.

The “Save Our Science” rally, near the Washington state Route 520 onramp, drew honks and waves from passing drivers. It coincided with the broader “Save Our Services” day of action, with protests planned elsewhere in the U.S. to challenge President Donald Trump’s push to gut some federal services and impose mass layoffs.

NOAA Fisheries’ Seattle-based workforce, represented by the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 8A, fisheries chapter, hasn’t yet seen layoffs but fear they are coming.

Federal workers across agencies that serve the Pacific Northwest, from the Forest Service to the Environmental Protection Agency, have been laid off in recent days.

The NOAA Fisheries Science Centers have been asked to provide lists of probationary employees to upper management, said Nick Tolimieri, president of the fisheries chapter of the IFPTE Local 8A. Trump and his adviser Elon Musk have been targeting probationary employees who have fewer civil service protections.

Tolimieri said when the list came back to the local science center, it appeared someone higher up had expanded the list with additional employees.

Picketers held signs telling the public “NOAA saves our fish” and “we literally save the whales.” One depicted a bald eagle with a sockeye in its talons and a MAGA ribbon around its beak. “Do not muzzle science,” the sign read.

Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for the second Trump administration, contained a call to “break up NOAA,” criticizing the agency as “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.”

Scientists on the picket line support some of the largest commercial fisheries in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska – studying and defining a sustainable pollock harvest, surveying halibut populations and providing data for fisheries managers. Some of the federal workers rallying near the onramp didn’t want to identify themselves for fear of retaliation.

Since the Trump administration came into office, agencies have been asked to identify grants that support climate-related research and published papers that involve climate change, and disclose what other countries they have been collaborating with to manage fisheries, the scientists say.

Potential firings, they say, could upend surveys and science necessary to inform fishers and maintain fisheries that rural communities rely on – seafood stocks that feed America.

The Alaska and Northwest Fisheries Science Centers employ hundreds of researchers and scientists who execute the Endangered Species Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. They provide the science behind fisheries management, help restore habitat and protect endangered species like southern resident killer whales and Pacific salmon.

Tolimieri, the union president and a NOAA research fisheries biologist, said his work involves kelp forest surveys and other stock assessments, sunflower starfish and other endangered species’ biological reports and listings. He works with data from surveys to help understand how oceanography and climate variability impact species reproduction.

“The funding and staffing cuts will just make it harder to deliver products fundamental especially to the West Coast fisheries economy,” Tolimieri said.

University of Washington Ph.D. students Kristin Privitera-Johnson and Julia Indivero collaborate with NOAA Fisheries scientists on their research; Privitera-Johnson’s work involves how catch limits are set, and Indivero studies the impacts of climate change on halibut and sablefish on the Pacific Coast.

“What NOAA really did for me was help me cultivate a sense of belonging in the field,” Privitera-Johnson said. “In the classroom, I got the skill sets, but the real money was being in community with scientists that really gave a damn about making a difference and being able to see myself among that community in the future.”

Indivero said the idea of these supportive, collaborative relationships and research going away made her upset. She showed up to support her colleagues and help the broader community understand the importance of NOAA Fisheries’ work.

“These are all people who live next to them, their kids go to school with their kids,” Indivero said. “We’re all just people who have jobs here.”