NOAA manages large ocean fisheries in US waters. Scientists there conduct surveys, sample fish, and run complex models to estimate the levels of sustainable catches. NOAA is recognized as a world leader in creating jobs, producing food, and avoiding overfishing. Kudos to NOAA fisheries!!!!

You won't encounter a less-political and more publicly beneficial organization than NOAA. It's filled with scientists, technicians, and analysts who entered their fields because they love what they do. The competence-to-fat ratio is probably higher at NOAA than anywhere. Destroying it is abhorrent.

Losing NOAA would be devastating. Project 2025 authors want to get rid of it because it monitors climate change, and privatize the information it currently provides for free, so you'll have to buy information about the weather and the winds (imperative for mariners).

https://bsky.app/profile/davelevitan.bsky.social/post/3lhfm6vydqs2x

An update from Wired less than an hour ago:

Sources tell WIRED that NOAA employees were ordered to give an engineer from Elon Musk's DOGE task force access to all of the agency's Google sites by the end of business Wednesday.

From the Sierra Club back in August 2024: What Would Happen to Science if the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Were Broken Up?

NOAA was founded in 1970 under President Richard Nixon. Today, the nearly 55-year-old organization is split into six different sub-agencies that include the National Weather Service (NWS); the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS); the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS); the National Ocean Service (NOS); the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR); and the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO), inside of which are dozens of smaller offices. Together, these bureaus establish and disseminate data relevant to nearly every part of our lives, whether it's protecting the satellites that keep our phones running or guaranteeing the safety of the fish we eat.

"Literally every single person in the US relies on NOAA every single day," says Jeff Watters, the vice president of external affairs for the Ocean Conservancy.

The NOAA's page showing the daily CO2 concentration at the Mauna Loa Observatory, a key measurement of our changing climate, is offline. It's unclear whether this is due to Musk's attacks, a Trump executive order, or some other cause. (via @jd)