DOGE-Linked Tech Executive Lands Role At Key Fisheries Agency

A startup founder with ties to the fish farming industry is among a group of DOGE operatives embedded at federal environmental agencies.

Elon Musk is reportedly preparing to step back from his hyper-active role in the Trump administration, but operators tied to his Department of Government Efficiency continue to burrow into the federal bureaucracy. A recent example can be found at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, an agency responsible for protecting marine wildlife, managing America’s marine fisheries, operating a network of crucial satellites, and overseeing the National Weather Service.

Last month, a DOGE-linked tech executive named Bryton Shang took on a new role as a political appointee at NOAA. A Silicon Valley figure who graduated from Princeton, Shang is the founder of Aquabyte, a startup involved in the fish farming industry. The company on its webpage says it “combines computer vision, machine learning, edge processing, and fish biology to deliver critical value to fish farmers.”

Shang was part of the DOGE team that traveled to California early in the Trump administration in an attempt to influence federal water management in the state. The trip resulted in a botched publicity stunt, first reported by Public Domain, that garnered national news coverage.

Bryton Shang (left) and Tyler Hassen (right) during their trip to California. (Source: Department of Government Efficiency.)

Since that initial tour of duty with DOGE, Shang seemingly dropped off the map. His name has not yet appeared in major newspaper databases of DOGE operatives. Nor did he land a job at the Interior Department, or DOI. This is in contrast to Tyler Hassen, who also participated in the California publicity stunt and who has subsequently become the face of DOGE at DOI, where he is currently serving in a top personnel and financial policy role.

But Shang, it turns out, is indeed still at work in Washington. He joined NOAA as a senior advisor, according to an internal email obtained by Public Domain. He is part of a small coterie of Trump appointees at the agency, including several veterans of the first Trump administration and an anti-wind-energy activist. This puts Shang, a former executive tied to the fish farming industry, in a role at the agency that manages America’s marine fisheries. He has written that he is “passionate about applying AI” to make NOAA more effective.

Like other federal institutions touched by DOGE, NOAA is reeling from mass layoffs, resignations, and a steep slowdown in its activities as agency contracts face scrutiny from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The agency declined to provide a comment on Shang’s new role and responsibilities

An internal NOAA email naming Trump political appointees at the agency.

NOAA’s experiences match those at the Interior Department, where DOGE operatives continue to extend their influence. Last week, Interior Department civil servants received a memo informing them that the agency had initiated another round of its deferred resignation and voluntary early retirement programs, which are meant to further thin the ranks of non-partisan agency staff. It also stated that DOI is planning to conduct reductions-in-force, i.e. mass layoffs. The memo was signed by Stephanie Holmes, a DOGE operative who is serving as DOI’s Acting Chief Human Capital Officer. DOI employees also received an email from DOGE’s Hassen, informing them that anyone who has not returned to the office must do so by the middle of June.

Musk, polls show, is divisive and politically unpopular among the American public. But even if he steps away from DOGE this summer — news reports that the White House has dismissed — his operatives will remain embedded within key environmental agencies across the federal government. Musk, in other words, has left his mark.