CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - Tuesday August 20th, 2024
Attendees: Chris Voss, Kim Selkoe, Blake Hermann, Matt Diamond, Ray Kennedy, Gary Burke, Jason Woods, Jim Colomy, Jason Diamond, Jeff Maassen, Michael Harrington, Mary Nishimoto, Garrett Rose, Jaime Diamond
Notes: Ava Schulenberg
Agenda:
*Housekeeping, time limits, 3 minute maximum policy on individual comments
Financials - 10 Min
Harbor Festival - 10 Min
Staffing, ask within your networks please
Harbor Commission: Slip Policy and CUDA Dock - 30 Min
Subcommittee update meeting
Survey on potential 10 year contract
Ocean Collective - 5 Minutes
Urchin removal pilot project
MRC Update on MPAs - 15 Min
Offshore Wind Update - 5 Min
White Shark Tagging - 5 Min
Ocean Rainforest - 5 Min
CFSB Merchandise Update - 10 Minutes
Thoughts on members getting a shirt
Abalone Outplant
Other:
VCCFA/CFSB BBQ Recap
Thank you Jason Woods and Dave Colker
Fish for Life event this Saturday 8/24
Chris starts the meeting at 4:03PM upstairs in the harbor classroom.
Agenda:
*Housekeeping, time limits, 3 minute maximum policy on individual comments; Ray emphasizes that you must be a member to attend meetings and that these meetings are private until published upon board approval.
Financials - 10 Min
Chris signed our tax return for 2023, those are completed now
Kim runs through the spreadsheet of Q2 financials:
The financial position tab
Cable committee funds were shifted from safety gear to staff costs per the last board meeting’s ruling
Budget vs. Actuals:
Good on donations, almost at 100% of goal and we’re not at the end of the year yet
Toby Donner grant is TBD, hopefully we’ll find out about that soon
City of SB funds we’ll spend more of this this fall
We just got a $5k grant from Food Action Network that’s unrestricted
We were given $2,000 for doing work with the abalone outplant project
$30k from UCSB for facilitating symposium, will take place in January.
Pending USDA grant for $100k, should find out about that any day now
We’re on track at meeting our fundraising goals but it’s all coming in later this year
Memberships:
Had a handful of new memberships in the past month which is great, thank you to those who have joined
We have 78 members as of now, the most we’ve ever had; Jason says that’s about the same as VCCFA too
Our YTD spending is conservative and on target
Gary asks if non-profit consulting is Kim’s work, she said yes; He asks if support staff is Ava, which is correct
Gary asks why CFSB has the Saturday Market in our books because he feels it should be entirely separate
Chris explains that as of April of this year, the Saturday Market has been funding itself through the Cable Grant and weekly dues
Ava advises Gary speak to Harry about this who is not at the meeting
Chris makes a motion to approve the financials as they are: Ray seconds, unanimous approval 4-0-0 vote stands
Harbor Festival - 10 Min
Staffing, ask within your networks please
Ray points out that it’s a very tenuous time, you have to pay people, the festival also is at the beginning of the season so it’s difficult to expect people to help
Ava acknowledges that, but we need help because most people in the fleet want nothing to do with the harbor festival and run in the other direction when that weekend comes, but we can still make it a great event if we have enough competent people helping at both the boiling and chop shop stations
Joe and Melissa’s friend Dave is going to be our leader in the chop shop which is awesome because he has worked the event twice now and is highly capable in the chaotic sphere that is the chop shop. With that said, we are still having a hard time finding people, even with it being a paid position ($25/hr), so please try to help encourage people to work for us that day so it’s a better experience for the public, which, at the end of the day, is what it’s all about
Ava has a spreadsheet going and will continue to reach out to folks who have helped in previous years but so far no one is able to join or does not have an interest in doing it again
Melissa was super helpful last year with recruiting SBCC students, so Ava will reach out to some of those folks specifically and see if they are available
Bottom line, this is an event that we don’t make money on, and it doesn’t have to be so difficult if we have the right people helping, please consider working with us on this day and pass the word along, we’re grateful for your help
Harbor Commission: Slip Policy and CUDA Dock - 30 Min
Subcommittee update meeting
Survey on potential 10 year contract
Mike Nelson is out of town right now but has advised that the Deparment has scheduled a meeting with the Workgroup and said that they may recommend an increase in lease rate and possibly seek to apply the commercial landings requirement for the slips at the CUDA dock; Ray says this is an anomaly and it should all be consistent
Chris says if they want to raise the landings requirement, we could make a plea to the waterfront dept that if they demonstrate a landing requirement in their rec slips they could get commercial rates; This idea was brought forth by the Commercial Fishing Work group recently
Suzanne Cohen suggested that we put a condition on it that would be turning a slip to designated commercial slip from a rec slip for 10 years (for example, this is all hypothetical), but you’d have to leave that slip as designated commercial until a contract period ended; This was her response to Chris’ suggestion that the supply of commercial fishing slips in the harbor should expand and contract based on need
Ray walked the docks recently and counted ~70 commercial boats in rec slips; He points out that there was a time where sport guys were buying commercial fishing permits to be able to launch at the ramp during COVID so there could be an inflated number
Jim says it seems like a revenue loss for the harbor, Chris agrees but explains that if the fiscal impact isn’t too significant, and the survey shows that a reasonable number of fishermen would find this helpful, maybe they would agree to it
Jim asks if CUDA still exists, Chris says no, their slip lease contract is with the CA Sea Urchin Commission
Gary is against raising slip landing requirements; Chris asks is Gary bought Mulcahy’s slip at a reduced rate when he sold his yacht slip; Gary emphasizes that every fishery except lobster is losing losing losing and is going to go away - Jim says lobster is under scrutiny too though
Jim suggests that the 10 year contract is unfair because a fisherman can sell their slip after 10 years at a rec rate and make a fortune; Chris and Ray remind him that he is receiving the benefit up front though because those guys in rec slips are paying higher rates; Jim wonders why we’re involving ourselves at all if it’s only maybe half a dozen guys that it’s affecting, Chris says even 6 guys benefitting would be a great thing though
Chris says the premier slips in the harbor are commercial
Chris says Wiltshire has been saying that the landings requirement policy needs to be raised for years, since he started the job
Ray says he does not provide all fish tickets to the Waterfront Dept, he just provides the requirement amount
Chris says there’s strong support on the harbor commission to support commercial fisheries in general; They said they won’t require insurance for commercial vessels but they will for all others for example, we get a lot of support from them.
If you are a commercial fisherman you can receive the benefit; Gary thinks the grandfathered in folks should be eliminated though
Jeff Hepp says there’s a bunch of people retiring and there will be more slips in the next 5-10 years, but that is all up in the air
Gary says he will pay rec rates if he can sell it at a rec rate; This isn’t a good idea though because then that’s even less commercial slips, this would be just to make a profit and would dilute the amount of commercial slips over time
Gary thinks there aren’t more commercial fishermen but Kim shows a graph on the number of commercial vessels in our harbor over time that says otherwise
Gary says that if they want to raise the landings requirement, do it for everyone, get rid of those that are grandfathered in, Jeff Hepp says it’s no problem because he actually fishes on the New Hazard, but the Gloria Marie hasn’t been able to fish because of the salmon season closures, but there’s a clause that helps alleviate that in the landings requirement policy for hardships
Gary asks why they need to raise the landings, Chris says because they want to add a mechanism that ensures commercial fishing boats are working and slips aren’t being wasted because they want to support the future of the industry and $15,000 is a low threshold that has not been changed in 2 decades
The consensus of this conversation is that there is zero consensus; Everyone seems to only be out for their own interests
Ocean Collective - 5 Minutes
SBCC is hosting a symposium on Wednesday 9/4 and we want to make sure that there’s good representation there
Urchin removal pilot project
The grant would pay urchin divers to remove urchin from a test area, and pay for the R&D of how can we get more purple urchin into the supply chain; There’s a lot of interest in trying this out and getting restoration funding so there’s a lot to be done to avoid for kelp forest loss
We’re working with TNC since they wrote the book on this process
The biggest urchin would go to the abalone farm and some would go to a guy making butter and the rest would go to the effort of turning urchins into powdered calcium input to soil and compost.
Jason asks how many boats will be involved? Kim says 2-3 for the pilot which will only be 1 site, but it will be more when they scale. We are budgeting ~$2k in a day per diver, but that will be put into a per pound price.
MRC Update on MPAs - 15 Min
Chris and Ava went to Monterey last year for the decadal review and they introduced the petition process for proposals to change the MPAs; There’s a variety of proposals and many have been submitted, but the ones we are most concerned about are the MPAs at Carp Reef and Point Conception; It’s a binning process so they’re putting easy ones in one bin and hard ones that might take years to implement in another; Chris says it’s all very controversial and will be a long drawn out process that will be very arduous and Fish & Wildlife is not that keen on the whole thing either
We heard them in Monterey last year state that it’s not a part of the 30x30 initiative but that was an asinine thing for them to say because if they create new MPAs that should be a part of the new 30% requirement
Gary says it’s all very expensive and they don’t have the funding to do this big type of process
Blake says it’s a complex process but we are right in the way we characterized Shuman’s approach with his opposition; In terms of its overlap with 30x30 they did say it’s not part of it, OPC is governing 30x30 but any additions will be added onto the existing MPA network; If every single proposal were to be passed, only 2.8% would be added so they would still need to find another 12% elsewhere, so we’re hoping they get sanctuaries to count because these new MPAs wouldn’t even help with this if all of them were passed.
Blake says bin 1 is easier petitions that staff has deemed as less controversial and this bin they’re saying will be cleared by December; None of the bin 1 petitions really affect us here
Bin 2 are all the important ones: Pt Conception getting twice as large, Pt Sal closed, Carp Reep, Gull Island, Anacapa they want to close; All of these are on bin 2; Petition 33 covers kelp restoration covers a lot of these aforementioned closures this is the biggest one but might be put on hold until the kelp restoration project is done but generally these will be done by the end of next year which considering what needs to be done is a very short amount of time, so this will be a relatively faster process than we thought
Jeff Hepp asks how much bigger the Conception closure is proposed, Blake says it’s almost a doubling into the lee of the bite extending east
Blake is happy to present on this more extensively again at our next board meeting as he has for CFSB earlier this year (check April 2024 minutes)
Ray says the Gull Island expansion proposal makes no sense because if you extend west that’s not a kelp area but this is being proposed as a kelp restoration process but that’s a guise because their argument has a lot of holes in it
Blake says they took surveys from databases and satellite imagery, if you read through all their rationales that’s essentially what they did
Chris says the goal here is to describe how we’re losing area as commercial fishermen in a multitude of ways so when we talk about opposition to MPAs we always need to remind them that we’re being cut out from all directions at every turn
Blake says for the Carp reef closure there’s already push back from the City so they’ve made some amendments and are in a back and forth stage right now, Some of the major holes with this one are:
The kelp isn’t affected by fishing there
The exact same thing was proposed in 2020 not by the same org but one that had worked closely with them; The same closure but smaller (minus tribal aspects) and it was denied; If it was proposed 4 years ago and denied, the same logic should apply now
Blake says the Naples proposal has historic deals that aren’t being considered anymore
Southern CA specifically from Conception to LA; It’s very under-protected if you look at the rest of the state if you don’t include the sanctuary but if you do (which it should) then it views as highly protected
This isn’t a state-sanctioned process like the MLPAs where you have scientists overlooking everything, it’s done by private individuals and pushed for by private donors
On 9/4 Wednesday (same day as the SBCC event but SBCC event starts at 4PM) at 3PM, there is a collaborative meeting, Ava will send out more details about this soon
Gary says in Laguna Beach they want to increase it 1 mile south, they had many rich people call in lobbying in favor but it’s going to kill the Dana Point lobster fishery; These rich people don’t even know what they’re doing and how many families they’re impacting
Any petitions that expand petitions or add new ones, CFSB will organize and work aggressively in opposition; We will work with other organizations on this initiative too
Blake says this is the consensus of pretty much all the groups he’s working with; He’s working with the sport/freedivers associations too
Jeff asks about the 153 footprint because he grew up swordfishing and wants to know about it (this is Blake’s petition), Blake is trying to figure out a timeline but the goal is to allow pelagic take in the MPAs especially for harpooned swordfish because if you hit it and it swims into illegal waters, it’s illegal to take it; The likelihood of getting it opened to buoy gear and harpooning is hopefully high and Chris emphasizes that he can put us down to support that in absolute terms if we have not yet made that clear already; There’s going to be a time for massive outreach and comments likely middle of next year so we will support Blake at the appropriate time
Offshore Wind Update - 5 Min
Chris says there’s been a hiatus in the 7C working group around their meetings because they’re switching facilitators and the new facilitation team is doing a better job for this coastal commission supported process that is to work out the details of how offshore wind companies will work with fishermen, so there are current discussions around responsibilities and positions that offshore wind companies are trying to fill that are a requirement to the process; Each company has hired liaisons to be a part of the mitigation process
There’s controversy of how that person is selected and if they properly represent the fishing community
This new position is a hybrid of kind of what Mary does with oil except that it’s more fisheries-centric
The port associations that are dealing with the site survey process are dealing with the impacts on fishing fleets so there’s a need to define this role in a more comprehensive way communicating what offshore wind is doing to fishermen statewide; It’s a difficult conversation all fishing associations are having right now
PCFFA Executive Director Lisa Damrosch might step into that role which we are in support of and want her to have this role for the state so that it relieves some of the mitigation pressures from local associations up and down the state
The model will be similar to how we benefit from the South Bay Cable Committee; The way the money will be spent will have guidelines and set up in a way that allows allocation of those funds to be similarly distributed in a granting capacity
There are also people being hired and trained to be observers similar to how there are “chase” boats with cable jobs
There’s this well-established fact that there’s so much uncertainty in all of this that they’re struggling to ascertain what the fishing impact is because they haven’t finished the engineering scope of their operations; It seems at this point it might be a strung system that might have a huge impact on albacore or other pelagic species; It’s all wildly experimental, all that’s happening now are the site surveys where they’re evaluating substrate for cable and anchoring systems
Jeff Hepp says he has no clue what they’re going to do in a storm; Gary says none of it matters because it’s coming anyway
Jason Woods says on the east coast they’ve lost the support of the fishermen and environmental groups because of all the accidents that have happened
White Shark Tagging - 5 Min
Update from Sean Hastings: White Shark Tagging Research Update for Aug. 2-4: Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, The sanctuary and CSU Long Beach shark tagging team worked in Carrington Marine Reserve, Santa Rosa Island (SRI), Saturday, August 3, 2024, Due to weather on the northside of SRI, the team moved to Ford Pt., southside SRI, No sharks were sighted or tagged in either location in the sanctuary. No ocean users were present in either location. Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024 The research team moved to the mainland and worked from Gaviota pier to the east for approximately 5 miles, and 1+ miles offshore. The team sighted over 7+ white sharks, mostly subadult <10', and 1 adult shark. Three sharks were successfully tagged. No future tagging research in 2024 is scheduled at this time.
Ava met with Ryan Freedman recently and learned the following:
The amount of bait they put in a lobster trap, is what they’re regulated to use in an hour 100 lbs per day of bait, so it’s comparable, they try not to do these events during lobster season, they try to go in MPAs they are allowed to do that
Risk of entrainment is very low
Rumor about cow legs is not true, they are mandated and always have been to use only certain species and they only have been using mackerel
Ocean Rainforest - 5 Min
Doug Bush took over for Eliza and he is no longer at the Abalone Farm
They put in their permit for the Ventura site but we have no clue if they actually want to pursue that site or not. Seems like the next opportunity to engage will be through public comment unless Doug reaches out to talk more about re-siting.
CFSB Merchandise Update - 10 Minutes
Thoughts on members getting a free shirt
Gary says raise dues to $120 next year and they’ll get a free shirt, but they’re going to be raised to $100
Chris buys the first long sleeve for $25
Jason says VCCFA does free shirts because they always have
Garrett makes a motion to sell everything not give anything away, Chris seconds, Ray opposes 3-1-0
Abalone Outplant
Kim says this was money from Plains All American to the County which gave a grant to the Bay Foundation, their plan is outplant 40,000 baby red abs over 5 years to the coast to mitigate oil impacts
Garrett says they hope they don’t go further toward Conception because there’s otters
This first round is 5,000 outplanted, they did a trip out last week, Kim and Chris went on separate days
Garrett asks how big they are? Kim says 1-2 inches across and they use oyster baskets to outplant them.
Jim Marshall also consulted on this
They gave CFSB funds for Chris, Jim and Kim’s engagement which will be added to cover staff time
Other:
VCCFA/CFSB BBQ Recap
Thank you Jason Woods and Dave Colker
Jason thanks those that came and says they want to do it every summer and build fellowship between our associations because we learn from guys on the east coast that it’s important to be in concert with one another
Jason got to the site at oil piers beach at 6AM to reserve the best spot for us and generously brought his camper so we had access to a bathroom
Jason also provided seabass and Ben Hyman provided rockfish, a big thank you to both of them for doing that
Fish for Life event this Saturday 8/24
Chris and Ava participated at their last event and it was incredibly rewarding
Jason says they can use some help that day for sure; Matt says they want to keep it to 2 people per kid; Jaime says they need pirates and could use help with once the boats go and right before they come back
Ava will send an email out asking for help on their behalf
Chris adjourns the meeting at 6:01PM