NOAA staff cuts and hiring freeze prompt alarm from scientists, union and conservation groups

The Pacific Fishery Management Council heard extensive testimony on March 6 about how recent personnel actions at NOAA Fisheries and a temporary hiring freeze are affecting science and survey work that supports fisheries management.

At the meeting, Chantelle Wetzel, speaking for the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 8‑8a, said probationary firings and other workforce reductions have already trimmed scientific capacity at U.S. science centers and will have immediate effects on data collection and assessments. “The proposed large scale reductions in force will decimate our institutional knowledge, capacity, and expertise,” Wetzel said. She told the council the Alaska Fisheries Science Center lost 10 bargaining‑unit employees in the probationary firings and the…