We don’t tend to get into politics in this column since our mission is to entertain and inform cruising sailors about all things to do with the cruising lifestyle. But, with the reorganization and downsizing of the U.S. executive branch by Elon Musk and the DOGE team, I have to wonder out loud about the fate of NOAA. There has been speculation since Trump’s first term that there are powerful advocates for reducing the size of the agency and privatizing some of it’s service. This is what NASA did when it partnered with Musk’s private company SpaceX.
Obviously, accurate weather forecasting is of vital interest to all sailors and boaters. But it also is vital for our national defense forces as well as to many industries from commercial fishing to the airlines to power utilities to the farming communities and more. NOAA is also a partner with national weather services in countries around the world which together feed data into their models to get the best forecasts possible.
As the DOGE process goes forward, I hope that the powers that be will consider accurate and free weather information as a vital service for the American people on par with maintaining the national defense. Sure, there are probably many ways to make an agency like NOAA more efficient and there may be services that can be privatized. But, in my view, NOAA’s core mission, competencies and international partnerships should be made better and stronger and not weakened. After all, when we head out for a sail, particularly offshore, we want to know that forecasts we are getting, that the data that models are crunching is the best it possibly can be.
