Fired NOAA scientists detail how federal layoffs could impact NorCal coast 'for generations to come'
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Former researchers with NOAA are speaking out about the wave of federal layoffs, raising concerns about important work that could now be in jeopardy and the effect their dismissals could have on the Bay Area coastline.
Matt Koller, Allison Cluett and Heather Welch were among the hundreds of employees fired from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The trio were working to protect our local coastline, but what they couldn't protect were their own jobs.
"So, on Thursday I received an email from the acting administrator of NOAA notifying me that as a probationary employee, my employment was being terminated as of 5 p.m.," Koller recalls.
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They were part of a team working on a new NOAA climate change effort called the Climate, Ecosystems, and Fisheries Initiative. It's designed to provide critical climate change modeling to agencies and non-profits managing our coast.
Welch's work was predicting the likely location of migrating whales, enabling a high-tech tracking network designed to avoid deadly collisions between whales and commercial ships. It was all supported by NOAA and Benioff Ocean Sciences, which deployed acoustic warning buoys.
"These models were run in real-time, so it produced a new map each day of where blue whales are most likely to be. And we gave that information to Benioff to integrate into their ship strike tool," Welch said.
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Cluett's work on changing ocean temperatures was helping to pinpoint threats to species like salmon facing shifts to their natural habitats. This work is potentially managing dangers like overfishing.
"Knowing where marine creatures are helps us make the best decisions we can around managing things that may impact them," Cluett said. "So, we're hoping to provide information that can help predict how the salmon populations might fluctuate in the future and how they might change in terms of the location and amount so we can understand how those fisheries can operate."
They say the work touched almost every species along our coast from great white sharks to the Dungeness crab and seafood we eat. They're also concerned for the future of the climate change initiative itself.
"And so now that I'm no longer at NOAA, I was the person that was running the tool and keeping it operational and it's unclear who's going to carry that forward or how that tool will even be cared for," Welch said.
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Koller believes the mass layoffs could hamper the agency in other ways.
"I would say we are losing our ability to be nimble and adaptable and resilient and conserve our coastal economies and cultures and ways of life for generations to come," he said.
Cluett is looking to the future and refuses to give up the fight for a better planet.
"I'm committed. I've spent my whole career training to figure out how to do science that helps serve us as we're understanding the changes happening to our planet right now. And so I'm committed to continuing that work in whatever venue that might be in the future," she said.
