The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is the latest U.S. government agency to face job cuts as the Trump administration continues slashing the federal workforce.

The firings will affect the research and marine operations in Newport. Notably, the layoffs included staff at the NOAA Marine Operations Center in Newport, which provides logistical support and maintenance for NOAA’s Pacific fleet.

More than 300 people work for the federal government in Lincoln County, according to the Oregon Employment Department, but it’s not clear how many of them are NOAA employees.

Paula Miranda, executive director of the Port of Newport, confirmed that staff had been cut at the Marine Operations Center, where NOAA has five years left on its lease. Miranda said she does not know the scale of the recent cuts.

NOAA workers who spoke to OPB were stunned by the job losses.

“I’m just outraged. We don’t even know how many people are gone. We’ve asked our managers to tell us, and they say they can’t. It’s a personnel matter,” said a NOAA employee who has worked with people the science center. The employee spoke on the condition of anonymity because the agency has prohibited its staff from speaking with the media.

“Individuals can tell us they’ve been fired, but as soon as they’re gone they’re cut off from their NOAA accounts,” the employee said. “It’s cold. These are our colleagues and their lives are being completely upended. Years of work are going down the drain and for what?”

Impacted programs

NOAA most directly interacts with Northwest residents by providing weather and forecast data to the National Weather Service. A public affairs person with NWS declined to comment, citing a “long-standing practice” of not discussing personnel matters.

“NOAA remains dedicated to its mission,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We continue to provide weather information, forecasts and warnings pursuant to our public safety mission.”

The agency includes the National Marine Fisheries Service, which works to manage salmon and steelhead fisheries. Its West Coast region is based in Portland, with additional locations in Roseburg and La Grande. It’s not immediately clear if any staff at those locations were affected by Thursday’s job cuts.

NOAA also provides critical research support for Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, also located in Newport. The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A recent analysis by the port found that if NOAA completely departed Newport, Lincoln County would lose 620 jobs, across both agency staff and workers supported by the agency’s economic activity.

Robert Cowen, the director of the Hatfield Marine Science Center, said the work the scientists do has a huge economic impact on the state of Oregon. He confirmed that some NOAA researchers have lost jobs, though he did not have an exact number.

“We have some of the best managed fisheries in the world,” Cowen said. “When you have sustainable fisheries, it’s well recognized and easier to sell the fish at a premium.”

NOAA scientists have very niche areas of expertise in a wide range of issues, Cowen said, from how to alert oyster farmers of incoming warm weather patterns to save their crops to creating maps for mariners’ use.

“These are people, most of them have years and years of training,” he said. “These are super-dedicated people … who were dedicating their life’s careers to this.”

Democratic state Rep. David Gomberg, whose district includes Newport, said Oregon should be proud to host one of the leading institutions in the world dealing with marine science, climate and fisheries, and the cuts will be devastating.

Gomberg called it “a really big deal” that will be life-changing for all Oregonians.

“When we start losing people here, and we are losing people, that puts at risk the work we’re doing to understand ocean warming and hypoxia and acidification and rising water levels. It also puts the fishing people going into those waters at risk if they don’t have a clear prediction of what the conditions are going to be out there,” Gomberg said.

The impact extends beyond future scientific breakthroughs or helping understand oceanic weather patterns, Gomberg said.

“Let me say this in another way, I live in the fire zone in Otis and we rely on NOAA to give us the conditions that were crucial to understand the fire conditions and the problems we had coming at us,” Gomberg said. “That’s not just true of people who live at the beach, but those who live across Oregon.’”

Extent of firings unknown

In total, at least 880 people have lost their jobs at NOAA nationwide, according to U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington. Officials with the agency declined to confirm details Thursday.

“The firings jeopardize our ability to forecast and respond to extreme weather events like hurricanes, wildfires, and floods—putting communities in harm’s way,” Cantwell said in a statement. “They also threaten our maritime commerce and endanger 1.7 million jobs that depend on commercial, recreational and tribal fisheries.”

U.S. Rep. Val Holye, D-Eugene, said in a statement that “our coastal, rural and wildfire-impacted communities are less safe today because of these cuts. They need to be reversed, especially so close to wildfire season.”

U.S. House Natural Resources Committee ranking member Jared Huffman, D-California, also blasted the job cuts as a “sham mission” carried out by Elon Musk and his staffers at the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency.

“People nationwide depend on NOAA for free, accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information,” Huffman said in a statement. “Purging the government of scientists, experts, and career civil servants and slashing fundamental programs will cost lives.”

Project 2025, a political blueprint developed by the president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, calls for the break up of NOAA. Many of the other cuts and reorganization efforts so far championed by the Trump administration have mirrored the recommendations of the document.

Project 2025’s recommendations call to “commercialize” the forecasts of the National Weather Service for use by the private sector, while allowing for-profit companies like AccuWeather to take the lead on weather forecasts for the public.

It also recommends breaking up marine and aviation operations, which NOAA’s Newport facility falls under, and reassigning ships to other agencies, including the General Services Administration.

OPB’s Cassandra Profita contributed to this report.