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NOAA Continues Only Essential Work In Seattle: Feeding The Fish

KUOW Photo/Audrey Carlsen
Access to the NOAA Sandpoint facility in Seattle is restricted to a skeleton crew of employees who are considered essential.

Paychecks and research have come to a halt at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle due to the partial government shutdown. Some NOAA researchers have been given special dispensation to come in to work only to feed the fish and invertebrates they study.

Morale at NOAA is pretty low for the skeleton crew that continues to come in to forecast the weather. So on Thursday they held a potluck to raise their spirits, serving up dishes with names like sequester quencher soda and filibuster parfait.

We haven't found out whether shutdown chicken was on the menu. NOAA employees are under strict orders to not discuss the shutdown with reporters. They are supposed to refer media inquiries to a phone number in Alaska — a phone number with a voicemail box that’s full.

The Anchorage office of NOAA’s National Weather Service issued a forecast Friday October 4 with the first letter of each line spelling the words “please pay us.”