President Donald Trump’s efforts to free fishermen from regulatory red tape are tying up the very people he seeks to unburden as thousands of small and medium-size operators begin feeling the weight of the president’s NOAA wrecking ball. “We’re seeing the whole system grind to a halt and fall apart,” said Meredith Moore, director of the fish conservation program at Ocean Conservancy, which has tracked the Trump administration’s fisheries rulemaking since Feb. 1. … Slash-and-burn downsizing, fishermen and experts say, is eroding NOAA’s ability to perform basic functions — like opening or closing a fishery, updating a fishery management plan, completing a stock assessment or engaging with regional advisory councils to ensure it’s following the latest science. The management rules are effectively stop-and-go lights on the fisheries highway. Without them, fishing boats remain dockside and fishermen lose critical income.

Other NOAA news:

• NBC: Meteorologists say NWS cuts degraded forecasts during recent storms