Nearly One Quarter of NOAA Fisheries Staff in Alaska Departed in 2025
Reported loss of 24% of staff in Alaska Region due to terminations, resignations and departures in anticipation of future cuts; Oceana calls for full support of NOAA fisheries
Press Release Date: June 4, 2025
Location: Anchorage, AK
Contact:
Jamie Karnik | email: jkarnik@oceana.org | tel: Jamie Karnik
This week the Alaska Region of NOAA Fisheries reported a loss of 24% of current staff as of January 1, 2025. The Alaska Region has lost 28 staff in total due to a combination of probationary terminations, resignations, and voluntary early retirements. Nineteen employees have departed since April, including scientists, data managers, IT specialists and other critical support staff. These losses will reduce the effectiveness of NOAA Fisheries across a range of specialties, including sustainable fisheries management, the conservation of essential fish habitats and protected species like whales and seals.
The losses will also likely affect NOAA’s ability to gather, analyze and share critical science around Alaska’s federal fisheries, which is the foundation of sustainably managed fisheries and essential information for policymakers, fishing groups, conservation organizations and Alaskans as a whole.
“NOAA Fisheries is the bedrock of a science-based sustainable approach to managing fisheries in Alaska, and losing one quarter of the regional staff in six months is a direct threat to fisheries, ocean animals and marine ecosystems in the state and beyond,” said Ben Enticknap, Pacific Campaign Director & Senior Scientist for Oceana. “Without adequate staffing at NOAA Fisheries the whole fishery management system is at risk, making it ever harder to tackle critical issues facing our oceans like climate change, habitat destruction, and the bycatch of salmon, halibut and crab taken in groundfish trawl fisheries. In the face of climate change and other massive impacts already happening to the oceans, we need more—not less—science and support from NOAA Fisheries.”
NOAA provides critical services for managing all federal fisheries in Alaska, including some of the largest fisheries in the world. In addition to fisheries management, NOAA provides a range of services, like weather monitoring and forecasting, charting oceans for marine navigation, and protecting coastal communities and infrastructure. Oceana continues to condemn funding cuts at NOAA by the Trump administration and has joined a growing chorus of institutions defending NOAA.
Alaska staff losses come at a critical juncture for NOAA Fisheries, as this week the North Pacific Fishery Management Council is considering issues around midwater, or “pelagic,” trawl fisheries in Alaska that are known to impact the seafloor, and plans to take action to address runaway salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery later this year.
Protecting ocean habitats from trawling continues to be an important issue in Alaska. Oceana filed a lawsuit after NOAA Fisheries and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council failed to take adequate conservation measures to protect essential fish habitats in federal waters off Alaska, despite a draft proposal from Oceana scientists that would protect more than 90% of the seafloor in the Gulf of Alaska from trawling while displacing no more than 5% of existing trawl effort and bring the region in line with conservation measures elsewhere in Alaska.
For more information on Oceana’s campaign to protect Gulf of Alaska habitat, reduce salmon bycatch and increase transparency in federal fisheries in Alaska please visit www.oceana.org/gulfofalaska
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Oceana is the largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Oceana is rebuilding abundant and biodiverse oceans by winning science-based policies in countries that control one-quarter of the world’s wild fish catch. With more than 325 victories that stop overfishing, habitat destruction, oil and plastic pollution, and the killing of threatened species like turtles, whales, and sharks, Oceana’s campaigns are delivering results. A restored ocean means that 1 billion people can enjoy a healthy seafood meal every day, forever. Together, we can save the oceans and help feed the world. Visit Oceana.org to learn more.
