NOAA employees are told to pause work with ‘foreign nationals’
The message states that the orders extend to participation in international commissions and even emails “with foreign national colleagues.” The message states that the orders extend to participation in international commissions and even emails “with foreign national colleagues.”
The email further instructs NMFS employees–responsible for promoting the conservation of sea life and sustainability of America’s seafood sources–to submit details of any ongoing work with international partners for vetting by higher-ups, including those at the US Department of Commerce, the NOAA’s umbrella agency.
The NOAA and the Commerce Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The motive behind the incommunicado orders is not immediately clear, nor is it clear how long they will last.
According to a source with knowledge of NMFS operations, granted anonymity because–as with other sources in this story–they were not authorized to speak to the press, NOAA officials discussed in a meeting Wednesday feeling targeted by the Trump administration, saying their work faces “huge exposure” due to offshore wind projects and participation in international wind energy workshops, conferences, and summits.
The agency had been anticipating, for example, hosting international fellows and interns this summer associated with an offshore wind development working group founded by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, the world’s oldest intergovernmental science organization.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office designed to paralyze growth in wind energy. In a postinaugural speech, he told rally-goers: “We’re not going to do the wind thing.”
According to another source at the NOAA, the incommunicado orders extend to the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. NESDIS also relies on a variety of international partners to gather data across the federal government. NESDIS’s weather and climate data is essential not only to air transportation safety but also to combat drought, monitor coral reef destruction, and safeguard railway shipping carriers against dangerous weather.
According to NESDIS’s website, it works closely with the European Space Agency, which provides access to data via a collection of Sentinel satellites maintained by EUMETSAT, an international weather-monitoring agency composed of more than 30 member states.
WIRED reported Wednesday that NOAA officials had been ordered to grant Nikhil Rajpal, a former Twitter employee who appears to have no expertise in ocean and atmospheric science, the power to edit documents concerning the agency’s work hosted by Google Sites. The orders, sources said, came from acting commerce secretary Jeremy Pelter.
Government records show Rajpal now has working email addresses with both the NOAA and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficient (DOGE) task force. WIRED also learned that Rajpal was listed as an expert on a list at the Office of Personnel Management (the government’s HR department), where DOGE agents have installed a database of federal employees to be used for the administration’s “deferred resignation” program.
