29-04-2025
'People are going to get hurt': What proposed DOGE cuts could mean for NOAA's weather buoys
Capt. Dave Tilley didn't mince his words about what might happen if the buoys off coastal North Carolina that provide real-time weather, ocean and climate data go dark due to President Trump's proposed budget cuts.
"I can look at a flag on the beach and tell what the weather is doing offshore because I've been doing this a long time," said the captain of the Carolina Beach-based Wild Rover III and operator of the fishing website. "But let me tell you who can't do that, the weekend fishing boys from Raleigh and Charlotte.
"Without those buoys people are going to get hurt, and that's the bottom line, and there are a lot more of them than there are of me.'
Severe budget cuts proposed at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration as part of Trump's push to cull the federal workforce, led by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, could gut a lot of the country's weather data network that aids fishermen, provides data to develop future weather models, and helps forecast threats to beaches and coastal communities.
The Coastal Ocean Research and Monitoring Program run out of the University of North Carolina Wilmington would be one of the programs facing potential shutdown under a fiscal 2026 Trump administration budget proposal that cuts roughly $1.6 billion from NOAA. The agency's 2025 fiscal year budget was nearly $6.1 billion. The UNCW-run program operates 18 offshore buoys that provide real-time observations of marine weather and oceanographic conditions along the coasts of North and South Carolina and Florida's east coast.
"Passback eliminates functions of the Department that are misaligned with the President's agenda and the expressed will of the American people," states a budget passback memo laying out the proposed cuts to NOAA's budget. "This includes eliminating (the U.S. Economic Development Administration) and (the Minority Business Development Agency) as bureaus within the Department and significant reductions to education, grants, research, and climate-related programs within NOAA."
Project 2025, a way-forward policy document created by the conservative Heritage Foundation, is seen by many as the blueprint Trump and Musk are following to reshape and shrink the federal government. The document proposed deep cuts to NOAA, blaming the agency for promoting "climate alarmism" and called for much of its work to be privatized or dissolved − especially anything associated with climate change.
Dr. Lynn Leonard runs the UNCW buoy program, which receives about $420,000 in support from NOAA.
She said the program operates nine buoys off Southeastern North Carolina, running roughly from Camp Lejeune south to the state line, and two shore-based stations on Masonboro Island.
The program's website gets about 5,000 hits a month. But Leonard said data generated by the program − with some buoys having up to 10 different sensors on them − is downloaded nearly 100,000 times a month by a host of public and private parties. Users range from businesses like Tilley's fishing site to the National Weather Service for its surf and rip current forecasts, National Hurricane Center for tracking tropical weather systems, and the Coast Guard when it has to conduct rescue operations.
Leonard thinks the program has enough funding to stay operational until roughly May 2026, although winding down operations starting with the buoys north and south of Cape Canaveral in Florida could start later this year.
If the buoys go dark, Leonard said a lot of that real-time information will be hard, if not impossible to replace.
'The conditions in the near-shore will be lost, and we really don't want to have that blind spot near the coast,' she said.
Officials at the National Weather Service's Wilmington office declined to say how the loss of the buoys and other data tools operated by the UNCW program would impact the office's forecasting work, referring all inquiries to NOAA public affairs in Washington.
"Per long-standing practice, we are not discussing internal personnel and management matters, nor do we do speculative interviews," said NOAA spokesperson Alison Gillespie in a statement. "NOAA remains dedicated to its mission, providing timely information, research, and resources that serve the American public and ensure our nation's environmental and economic resilience. We continue to provide weather information, forecasts and warnings pursuant to our public safety mission."
The American Meteorological Society warned in a statement that moving forward with the heavy cuts to NOAA's budget would have 'unknown − yet almost certainly disastrous − consequences for public safety and economic health.'
If Wilmington's near-shore buoys have to pulled out of the water, Tilley said fishermen and others will be left relying on a buoy 40 miles offshore run by the National Data Buoy Center near Frying Pan Shoals for the closest real-time marine weather conditions.
"Do you know how much the ocean changes over 40 miles? A ton,' he said with a wry laugh.
Tilley said he and other concerned parties have already reached out to local elected officials to express their concerns about the proposed NOAA funding cuts.
"Accurate and real-time data from NOAA's IOOS is critical to support North Carolina's ability to better predict and prepare for hurricanes," said Daniel Keylin, a senior advisor to U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, in a statement. "Senator Tillis was proud to support the more than $3 billion investment in NOAA through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Any potential funding changes need to first and foremost ensure there will not be any operational impacts on storm preparedness.'
Tilley said while there are obviously commercial interests like his that rely on the data generated by the buoys, the bigger issue is their importance to public safety.
Take an approaching hurricane or tropical storm, for example.
"Twenty miles this way or 20 miles that way can make all the difference, something we've learned the hard way here in Wilmington," Tilley said. "We need those buoys. It's that simple. It's a bad idea to let them go."
Reporter Gareth McGrath can be reached at GMcGrath@ or @GarethMcGrathSN on X/Twitter. This story was produced with financial support from the Green South Foundation and the Prentice Foundation. The USA TODAY Network maintains full editorial control of the work.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Could DOGE's proposed cuts to NOAA sink weather buoys off NC, SC?
