- The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) lost hundreds of employees in recent firings by the Trump administration.
- NOAA conducts research and monitoring that informs weather forecasts and studies the Great Lakes.
- It manages the National Marine Sanctuary System, including three in the Great Lakes, protecting shipwrecks and biodiversity.
Members of the federal agency that informs local weather forecasts, makes air travel safer and helps prepare for natural disasters were fired on Friday morning, the latest casualties in the Trump administration’s efforts to dramatically reduce the government workforce.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — or NOAA — which falls under the U.S. Department of Commerce, keeps track of the sky, oceans, atmosphere and fisheries. It’s a small agency with about 12,000 employees, but its work touches, and benefits, everyone, even though they may not realize it.
Around 800 staff were let go on Thursday, with more likely on Friday, according to CNN. Deep cuts could slow long-term weather and climate monitoring, leave Americans with less time to prepare for extreme weather natural disasters and put cultural resources and biodiversity at risk.
Here’s what to know about NOAA and how it affects people who live in the Great Lakes.
NOAA forecasts weather as well as Great Lakes ice cover, lake conditions
More than half of the agency’s staff are scientists and engineers, many of whom research and monitor data that inform weather forecasts. The agency tracks geomagnetic storms that interfere with telecommunications and power grids.
The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, based in Michigan, is a research hub for the world’s largest surface freshwater system. Scientists at the laboratory research and monitor ice cover, lake levels, harmful algae blooms and invasive species.
The lab also provides cutting edge modeling on dangerous lake-effect snowstorms and operates a Lake Michigan field station in Muskegon, Michigan.
More:New data shows winters in Great Lakes region shrinking by two or more weeks since 1995
NOAA manages fisheries, supports commerce
The federal agency is responsible for managing U.S. fisheries, which includes preventing overfishing, rebuilding stocks and ensuring a sustainable seafood supply.
NOAA also supports commerce, including extensive navigation and mapping work for shipping.
More:Scientists just discovered cold, dark sinkholes in Lake Michigan. What’s living in them?
NOAA has made air travel safer, reduced fatalities in natural disasters
The federal agency has played a key role in making air travel safer and reducing fatalities from natural disasters in the U.S.
It has launched satellites into space, deployed scientific ships across the oceans and Great Lakes, and sent aircraft into hurricanes. Through decades of weather and climate monitoring, NOAA has developed exceptional forecasting capabilities, which continue to improve as scientists collect more data.
One part of the agency even tracks how much natural disasters cost the U.S., which continues to climb each year.
As climate change worsens flood events, hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters, a lack of investment in weather and climate monitoring could leave Americans with less time to prepare for and respond to these events.
More:Are Lake Erie’s algae blooms home to the next pharmaceutical drug? Some scientists think so.
NOAA is the trustee for shipwreck sanctuaries in the Great Lakes
NOAA manages the country’s National Marine Sanctuary System, protecting 629,000 square miles of the oceans and Great Lakes. The network includes 18 marine sanctuaries, and two underwater national monuments.
Marine sanctuary designations protect culturally important sites, like shipwrecks, and areas of high biodiversity.
There are three national marine sanctuaries in the Great Lakes: Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Lake Huron; Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary in Lake Michigan; and Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary, the newest in the lakes. A site has also been proposed in Lake Erie.
The designation also helps support conservation and science efforts, which is very much needed in the Great Lakes, where less than 15% of the lakebeds have been mapped. In fact, Wisconsin’s shipwreck sanctuary is one of the most well-understood places in all of Lake Michigan.
Caitlin Looby is a Report for America corps member who writes about the environment and the Great Lakes. Reach her at[email protected], follow her on X@caitlooby and learn more about how she approaches her reporting.
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