Late last month, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, mandated that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration get rid of 31 of its rental offices and facilities, including three in New England, The Public’s Radio has learned.
Former NOAA scientists say they especially fear the ramifications of losing a building on the list in East Falmouth, Mass., which has long housed the entire Northeast Coast’s fisheries observer program and is tasked with tracking the number and habits of fish from Cape Hatteras, N.C., to the Gulf of Maine, and helping ensure fishers are not catching too many fish or illegal species.
Several workers from that program were already terminated in mass firings on Feb. 27, and scientists say losing the East Falmouth building would cause further disruptions, potentially resulting in massive declines in fish populations in the region and declines in enforcement of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Sarah Weisberg, a former fisheries biologist with NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center who was terminated last month, said the information the observer program provides to scientists gives them important insights into how the fishing industry is affecting fish population numbers. She says the loss of that information, along with jobs like hers and the leases in jeopardy, will have a significant negative impact on the fishing industry and marine ecosystems.
“The reason that we exist is to provide information that is valuable to the fishing industry, to the fishing community. If we don’t exist, or if we are crippled, we simply can’t provide that information to the same caliber or the same extent,” said Weisberg.
In total, about 5% of the staff for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center lost their jobs last week, according to a former employee familiar with the list of employee terminations who didn’t want to be identified out of fear it would affect her employability in the future.
NOAA employees said a memo distributed in January warned additional job cuts could come as soon as next week to the entire agency.
Leases in R.I., Mass., and Vermont up for potential termination
On Feb. 26, senior NOAA leaders received a list of the 31 NOAA buildings where leases could be terminated, according to a former employee familiar with the list who asked not to be identified because she feared the potential effect it could have on her career. The communication came a day prior to the recent mass terminations.
Most leases on the list are scheduled to be canceled within the next 12 to 18 months, multiple sources said. They also asked that their names be withheld for fear of the professional harm that could come from speaking out publicly.
The three New England facilities included in the list were Blanchard Block, 14 North St., Barre, Vt.; East Falmouth Technology Park, 25 Barnard East Saint Jean Drive, East Falmouth, Mass.; and 83 State St., Narragansett, R.I. The Rhode Island and Massachusetts locations are associated with the NOAA fisheries and are part of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. The Vermont location houses programs related to geodetic surveys, which, according to a former NOAA employee, are important for understanding the earth’s gravity, size and shape, and crucial for making accurate maps and understanding changes such as coastal erosion.
Two days after NOAA shared the list of those buildings, Vice Admiral Nancy Hann, the deputy undersecretary at NOAA, sent an email to some staff members saying the lease terminations would be temporarily paused to review the potential impact of losing the buildings, according to a source familiar with the email who was terminated last week, and who also did not want to be identified publicly out of fear it would affect her future employment.
East Falmouth closure could cause major disruptions
If NOAA shuts down the facility in East Falmouth, the agency will need to find another location to store large walk-in freezers that hold seabirds, sea turtles, fish, seals and even some smaller whale species used to train new observers in identifying and interacting with marine species, according to Sarah Cierpich, who was terminated from NOAA last week after being promoted from a contractor to a federal employee.
It’s unclear if NOAA plans to cut the observer program or just consolidate the Cape Cod facilities at NOAA-owned buildings at the Woods Hole facilities, also located in Falmouth. If DOGE wants to consolidate operations into one building, Cierpich said NOAA would need to terminate more employees to fit its staff into the space. She said the Woods Hole facility was “absolutely not” large enough to fit the 70 employees from the crowded East Falmouth building.
“They have a Space Committee because they have to cram so many people in there,” said Cierpich, who worked in the East Falmouth facility for about 15 of her 19 years with NOAA.
This story was reported by The Public’s Radio.
