CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - December 10, 2024
Attendees: Chris Voss, Kim Selkoe, Jason Woods, Chris Free, Mary Nishimoto, Kaira Wallace, Gary Burke, Jeff Hepp, Marco Farrell, Garrett Rose, Claire Gonzalez, Ray Kennedy, Harry Liquornik, David Lamar, Jeff Maassen, Matt Diamond, Bernard Friedman, Doug Bush, Nick Voss, Mary Nishimoto
Notes: Ava Schulenberg
Agenda:
*Housekeeping, time limits, 3 minute maximum policy on individual comments
Presentation from Dr. Chris Free on 30x30, set gillent policy and Offshore Wind - 30 min
Vote on Nereid proposal approval - 10 min
Ocean Rainforest update - 15 min
NOAA AOA PEIS BS - 10 min
Kelp restoration pilot program update - 10 min
UCSB Summit plan for 1/23/25 - 5 min
Ocean Collective Update - 5 min
Salmon Update - 10 min
Sablefish Quota Permit Leasing - 10 min
Offshore Wind Update - 5 min
Harbor insurance update - 5 min
Kim’s 2025 contract
Other - 10 min
CUDA dock update, Harry Liquornik
OPC meeting yesterday
FGC Meeting tomorrow
$500 Thanksgiving Food Bank Donation
Christmas Party 12/14 6:30PM at The Brewhouse
2025 Cable Grant Application
Saturday Market
Kim starts the meeting at 4:03PM upstairs in the harbor classroom.
Agenda:
Presentation from Dr. Chris Free on 30x30, set gillent policy and Offshore Wind - 30 min
Kim introduces Chris - Research Scientist at UCSB, we’ve been talking to him about all the ways his research impacts fisheries and is focussed on a fair/balanced view of fisheries
Chris begins his presentation: Science to support sustainable and profitable west coast fisheries:
Chris did his PhD on the east coast and moved to SB 6 years ago. His focuses include:
Bycatch avoidance
Harmful algal blooms
Marine protected areas
He was part of the decadal review
He is on the science advisory team for 30x30
Update for CA: 30x30 goal will be met
Current MPA network counts toward 16%
Remaining 14% will come from existing spatial management areas (national marine sanctuaries, areas of special biological significance - water quality, restoration sites, underwater state parks, military areas)
Harry asks when he hears 16% they’re going by overall area correct? Chris says yes it’s valuing area not habitat; Harry asks if they will work on that? Chris says unfortunately he thinks no and the area-based target is not that flexible to interpretation, though Chris agrees with Harry’s line of thinking and thinks it’s a credible argument, he doubts that there will be room for pursuing that methodology of value versus spatial accounting
Chris Voss asks about wetlands? Chris Free says he would be excited for managed estuaries to count; He is not sure how they might draw boundaries yet
Jeff Maassen asks if the 30x30 proposal is a stand alone policy or does it come under the umbrella of MLMA? Chris says it’s a Gavin Newsom executive order and it’s separate; Jeff asks if it’s been ratified? Chris says yes and the goal is basically, “land and coastal water areas that are durably protected and managed to sustain functional ecosystems, both intact and restored, and the diversity of life that they support.”
UC reserves are something that they are potentially considering
He thinks OPC could say OK in order to qualify you have to do XYZ which could be invest in restoration or something like that; He thinks it will be that type of activity versus additional fishing restrictions
Offshore wind development
Mitigation/compensation agreements for fishermen
As of now this is nascent work funded by BOEM; They are doing an analysis of the impact of the Humboldt and Morro Bay offshore wind development on the dover sole, thornyhead sablefish fishery; Trying to give BOEM a menu of options of how to compensate people for these areas
Avoid and minimize impacts, then mitigate via Direct payments, investments in port infrastructure, investments in improved fisheries management, investments in habitat restoration.
Chris Voss says Chris Free needs to be looking at our efforts in the 7c working group as they continue their BOEM funded work; Chris Voss says Northern economics is doing an economic analysis of OSW’s impacts on fisheries. Pacific States has done work for salmon disaster relief and may help with one time compensation payments to fishermen due to OSW impacts. Chris Voss urges Free not to do parallel efforts, but to be involved in one another’s work as much as possible so he can understand where we are; Voss says BOEM is not helping the 7c process with constructive engagement. - It’s top down and we need to get a handle on it so it doesn't ignore the long and short term impacts of offshore wind.
Chris Voss says resiliency funds are more important than one-time direct payouts for fishing communities long term.
Chris shows a slide that paints the picture of the challenges of the Dungeness Crab fishery and how many problems there are that have interrupted their seasons. His work aims to find ways to minimize those disruptions while still achieving the public health and whale protections.
Set gillnet fishery has been heavily prosecuted for bycatch:
Participation has declined dramatically in recent years; Used to be a $12M industry, now it is approximately a $1M industry
In CA there are about 30 set gillnet permits left, but only about 16 vessels still actively producing on a consistent basis
Oceana (NGO) wants even more regulations
Yet marine mammal populations are growing, so their accusatory claims are unfounded
Observer data to estimate bycatch in fishery
Common murre, CA sea lion, and harbor seal, are the top 3 species commonly caught unintentionally; The concern from environmental groups is Great White Sharks, but the data of those in bycatch is so low that it did not even show in the list
He explained that his dataset is based on extrapolating out from the trips that had observer coverage. So if in 1000 trips, observers saw 1 sea lion and there were 3000 trips made total, he would extrapolate impact to 3 sea lions.
His analysis showed that the levels of bycatch are all under 10% of the levels that NOAA deems as problematic. Almost all are about 1% even.
It's too bad this analysis wasn’t available in 1990 when the proposition was used to shut down gillnets in State waters.
A quote from the LA Times in 1990 - “State and federal biologists say there is no way to determine the exact impact of gill nets on fisheries. Records show that the annual halibut catch is divided about equally between commercial and recreational fishermen” which is not true; In the hay day there was plenty of data; the analysis now is less helpful because of the management reality so he wishes we had done this research in 1990 when data was prolific
Contact info: [email protected]
Jeff Maassen asks if there is a website? Chris says not yet but there will be
Vote on Nereid proposal approval - 10 min
Kim reminds the group about Alysan Santoro’s presentation at last month’s board meeting; Kim shows the proposal that was submitted:
Jan 2025 survey implementation
Ava will be conducting surveys with about 10-15 fishermen to decide what the best potential bioplastic mold would be for them to pursue
Feb 2025 follow up survey and reporting
Harry asks about funding? This isn’t really a grant, it’s a consulting contract. Alyson will be paying us directly.
Gary asks why the funding is going through CFSB? Chris says because we have a purchasing agreement with UCSB already. Also, Kim has done and will do a small amount of the work and needs to be paid through CFSB.
Ava points out that this might not be a lobster-specific outcome, once she surveys everyone then we can decide, but Ray and CLTFA will take on the work if it ends up being a lobster fishery-specific product.
CFSB and CLTFA will split the 10% overhead fee, about $250 each.
Ocean Rainforest update - 15 min
Kaira Wallace from Ocean Rainforest (“OR”) gives a presentation; She joined in July of this year as their Regulatory and Community Engagement Associate
Kaira gives a presentation on the Ocean Rainforest Demonstration and Commercial Project Updates:
Demonstration Site - Permit Extension
Ocean Rainforest filed for extension on their demonstration site permit in June of 2024
Initial weather/regulatory delays meant our first growing season was significantly shortened
To get a more complete set of data, on year extension was requested
Original expiration of permit was 12/31/2024
Coastal Commission and Army Corps granted their extension request so their permit will nor run until 12/31/2025
All infrastructure will be decommissioned before expiration of permit, notice to mariners has been updated to reflect this extension
Kim says she’s heard about transfer of rights interests from other environmental groups? Doug and Kaira says that’s an off the wall rumor and they have heard nothing about that
Chris says if someone approached them with an amount of money would that even be possible? Doug says any offer like that would be treated by the agencies as a ground zero project proposal, there’s no carry over from the, they don’t have rights to give
Commercial Application - Ventura
OR submitted an application for a commercial scale seaweed aquaculture site to the army corps of engineers on 6/7/24
Application has entered first step of the permitting process on 12/9/24 - The public comment period
Public notice for the project application is now live, comment period will run through 1/8/2025
https://usace.contendtdm.oclc.org/utils/getfile/collection/p16021coll15/id/7732
Proposed location
Chris asks if their proposed site is in an AOA? Kaira says yes and shows a map with the applied for location
Gary asks how big it will be? Kaira says they applied for 2000 acres in total (versus the current demo site is 86)
Gary asks about the depth? Kaita says the depth is 60-30 meters, about 80 meters at demo farm, slightly shallower but still in federal waters
Network of cultivation units to be phased in over the course of several years
Expected yield between 6,000-11,000 tons of giant kelp per year
Chris says it’s been our position that we are vehemently opposed to finfish aquaculture and at the council meeting last week this was a topic of conversation as well; Of the kinds of aquaculture that can be done algal and bivalve are probably the best
Doug says the AOAs are not provided by NOAA as sites, NOAA is just doing the legwork to let people know that these sites may be preferable in terms of minimizing conflicts and being viable sites; It’s tempting to make a straight line comparison to OSW bottom leases that are getting auctioned off, but that's not what AOAs are. Each aquaculture lease permit will still go through its own EIS review, whether or not the applicant chooses an AOA for their site.
Jeff Maassen asks if they have expectations that the 6,000-11,000 number will be profitable and who is funding this? Kaira says they will be turning the kelp into a biostimulant product for agriculture; They’ve found it will be a hard thing to sell for human consumption, so this biostimulant is sort of fertilizer adjacent but will help farmers have higher yields with less traditional fertilizer, but they have to do this at scale in order to keep up with costs
ARPA E program Dept of Energy, research grant from them to see if seaweed cultivation at scale is survivable and profitable and sustainable; The hope is with the biostimulant product that’s how they transition into a profitable company versus just a research grant project; Doug emphasizes DOE won’t fund the infrastructure of a commercial operation; Harry says wouldn't they want to see if there’s a market first? Doug says they are funding the biostimulant market analysis but it ends after that, they won’t be paying for anything else that involves OR making a profit
They are the first OR location around the world that is focusing on this biostimulant product; Other locations are more focused on animal feed and human grade consumption products; Doug says it’s an ideal area for this type of goal because we are positioned in a 300 mile radius between Santa Barbara, Ventura, and SLO counties which produce $5B ag revenue annually
Kim asks about heavy metals in kelp on the site? Kaira says that went into the marine spatial planning analysis, but they don’t flag it as something that will be a big issue. Kim says on the east coast there’s a lot of places where you can’t harvest kelp - Kaira says there’s not a lot of stagnation at the site they’ve asked for despite the fact that it’s near a river outlet in Ventura
Jeff asks about the original nature of spores? Kaira says there’s no selection of characteristics or genetic modifications; They collect spores from Arroyo Burro.
Mary asks about vessel traffic in the 2000 acres? Kaira says ideally they will have 15-30 ft transit lanes. Still testing methods out at the demo far, a typically vessel could go through and not get caught, in the event someone wasn’t paying attention and drove straight through the farm, everything would be submerged so there hopefully wouldn’t be an accident
Kim asks if the red square is their new shape then in the map they previously showed, not the green one? Doug says yes, they now aligned their boundaries to be the exact N2-D AOA zone.
Public comment period on their application is open now until Jan 3, 2024
Contact info: [email protected] and [email protected]
Kaira welcomes suggestions on who else to include in these types of updates
NOAA AOA PEIS BS - 10 min
Doug clarifies that this stands for Aquaculture Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement
Gary asks if there will be a lot of chances to talk to NOAA because they’re still up in the air about this? Gary says they don’t have any information - He says there’s some squid guys there, crab pots, all kinds of stuff that they’re not accounting for; The info they used is only partial because half the boats don’t use AIS and the logbooks are likely inaccurate
Doug says a PEIS is like their proposal for a framework on how to evaluate an individual project (like OR), they’re setting up a programmatic framework for how an applicant would be evaluated if they proposed something in an AOA.
Public Comment is due in February. PCCFA will be writing a letter, and CFSB will too.
Kelp restoration pilot program update - 10 min
Kim shares that we had a great meeting last week to kick it off and we talked about site selection and we’re going to be working to do some reconnaissance to pick a site; Tyler Bight is our first area of interest
We want to figure out a system of keeping the wider port-community in the loop; Kim says talking to the urchin commission and Ventura guys to make sure they feel like they’ve got a voice in this process is really important
Kim says half the funding has hit our bank account; Kim has been working with Harrington about how to divide up the funds between our US Bank account and our Oak Bank higher interest account. They are thinking of keeping $20-30K in US Bank for cash flow and the rest in Oak. It is a 3 day wait to transfer funds, though it's sometimes just 1 day. Harrington is searching for the best 9 month CD, he’s finding 4.1% APY so far but rates are likely to go down.
Chris mentions that the meeting we had in this room last week had almost all the key players (except Harry and Jeff), including Tristin McHugh from TNC who leads the North Coast restoration work. Tristin was given a lot of airtime at the OPC meeting last week and gave a very compelling presentation of her work that OPC has funded in the northern part of the state. We have confidence that we’ve assembled a great team, including Santa Monica Bay Foundation as well.
Doug asks about methodology? Kim says basically carved out and no active re-seeding, doing everything on commercial permits, no scientific permits to allow us to get started more quickly; All of it will be landed; 10-20% will go to the Ab farm; We’re trying to emulate what’s being done on the North Coast
Doug says if we’re ever interested in green gravel seeding, etc., Ocean Rainforest would be a good resource for that. Kim says this method is likely (hopefully) not necessary, but we will explore it if we have to
UCSB Summit plan for 1/23/25 - 5 min
This event will take place on January 23rd on state street at the CEC building at
We’re hoping to get 60-80 people in the room to have small discussions about research can be better informed to support commercial fishing interests
Kim is still trying to solicit speakers for panels and topics so please reach out to her if you’re interested in either sharing your suggestions of topics or if you’re interested in speaking
Ocean Collective Update - 5 min
Did not get to this item, will address in next meeting
Salmon Update - 10 min
Garrett and Jeff say it’s bad; Jeff says they want to open it up to limited access next year but won’t know til March or April, but the limits are expected to be ridiculous like 20 a week; Jeff says all the videos of salmon and salmon in Berkeley in particular, it’s crazy
Garrett says he doesn’t think the hatcheries know what they’re doing and it’s really sad
Jeff says the elderly salmon fishermen he knows are worried they won’t be able to fish again before they die
Garrett says if anything it might be like WA state which is a mess
Garrett says there has been no disaster relief even remotely communicated; He heard a rumor that is was coming like Christmas money but that came and went, they won’t know til mid-year next year; Jeff says they should collect interest
Sablefish Quota Permit Leasing - 10 min
This topic will be further discussed at the next meeting hopefully Miles will be present
Jeff asks if this is something we can sell? Garrett says now isn’t the time;Chris says it’s southern sablefish quota and getting rid of that stuff now if you were to lease that permit to someone it would affect the SB guys and it’s already a saturated market with a limited number of guys in SB and Morro Bay fishing and still impacted by the northern guys fishing this so none of the money would stay attached to us
The rationale was to keep it and shelve it so it doesn’t get used by someone else for the wrong reason
Offshore Wind Update - 5 min
This item was embedded in the first agenda item discussion with Chris Free
Harbor insurance update - 5 min
Phased approach of liability insurance being required for vessels starting 2026; Starting with marina 5 (in the anchorage); Gary says the harbor commission meeting was very frustrating to listen to and he says Wiltshire claimed other harbors enforce this and we’re one of the only ones but Gary says San Diego, Morro Bay, there are others that don’t require commercial boats to have insurance (Ava will ask Gary to provide further information)
Kim’s 2025 contract
Chris asks the room if everyone in the room saw Kim’s email about her raise from $95 to $115
Harry asks if she’s billing at different rates for different stuff? Kim says no she’s never done that, but she could if needed
Harry says try and time it to not coincide with the yard rent increase
Kim says all her costs would be covered by grants
Chris makes a motion to approve this raise, Harry seconds unanimous approval 5-0-0 vote stands
Jeff says Kim is a big asset and Garrett says yes, please keep getting those grants
Chris Voss says it’s things like getting Chris Free in meetings that Kim can coordinate
Other - 10 min
CUDA dock update, Harry Liquornik
Harry asks Chris what he thinks of our recent meeting with the Waterfront Department regarding the contract renewal? Chris thinks Harry did a great job at addressing his perspective of what the outcome should be; Chris shares that the outcome of this meeting we had with the Waterfront Department is that the CUDA dock slips will become regular commercial fishing slips with no transfer fee associated
Harry says that the dock has been operating for 40 years and it just got wiped out in one meeting; Chris says there was a very complicated dynamic that took place in the room and we need to recognize that. He says he has benefitted personally from that dock and would never do anything to ruin that situation; Chris says given the circumstances, he feels the outcome was positive
Harry says this organization has a strong interest in getting more commercial fishing slips so we need to fine tune that because so far what he’s seen is potentially kicking guys out of slips by not meeting landing requirements. Harry asks to put this as an agenda item to have further discussion because there’s a need to come up with better plans for when we meet with the Waterfront Department
Waterfront Department said the raising of landing requirements is coming
The meeting dynamic was less than ideal because we were defending ourselves from a disadvantaged position due to the situation we were in with Billy’s position and protecting his interests
Harry asks if we would have signed the lease that they offered with the retroactive requirement? That would have set precedent for the Waterfront Dept to be able to require retroactive landing requirements
Chris reminds Harry that the dynamic was complicated and if there was not the need to protect certain people’s interests, we would have had more leverage to negotiate and have more of a leg to stand on, so he can’t really answer that question
Jeff Maassen points out that the shoreside finger of the CUDA dock is non-navigable so they can’t expect a regular rate there
We want guys fishing in rec slips to get commercial discounts which is a big ask
Jeff Maassen says there are vessels on marina 1A that are rec that are in commercial slips? Chris says he thinks those are visitor slips?
Chris says the harbor commissioners may be happy with the way the negotiation came out
OPC meeting yesterday
Chris strongly urges the room to engage in these meetings more because he was the only fisherman on the call
The meeting over rotated on other topics and fishing wasn’t brought up at all; If Chris hadn’t attended and commented, commercial fishing probably would not have even been mentioned
Ava was on the call too and will send the minutes out via email
FGC Meeting tomorrow
The petitions are there but it’s hard to determine what they're going to do and we think they did that intentionally so they’ve likely made this agenda intentionally ambiguous about what they’re going to do
Ava will be on the Zoom and will notify people if it’s worth joining
$500 Thanksgiving Food Bank Donation
This was a good way to keep our relationship with the Food Bank active since we want to do more with them in the future
Our donation was the largest they got from a nonprofit
They are mentioning CFSB in their outreach materials as thanks
Christmas Party 12/14 6:30PM at The Brewhouse
Jeff will donate shrimp, he talked to Grant and will connect with him Friday
Ava says please let her know if you can come for a headcount for food
Also send Ava photos for the slideshow if you have not done so already
2025 Cable Grant Application
Saturday Market?
Gary says it seems like the Sat Market asks have been ongoing (which is true because it’s asks for managerial/supply maintenance/marketing funds)
If we don’t do Sat Market, the Sat Market can still run on their own dues etc. and Ava can look into other grants
Chris says we should apply for funds to support our work in opposing 30x30 and MPA expansion.
Jeff says Pete Hallmay says he’s willing to give $200k to give for MPAs, are we cutting out avalon raft money? Why aren’t we going after money from the Morro Bay cable committee? Chris says we should try that given they have a significant reserve.
Gary says asks for more from Morro Bay because they have over $1M sitting in a bank getting interest, versus the South Bay Committee
He’s not sure what Pete was talking about because he doesn’t think the South Bay is in the position to give PCFFA much funds as rumoured
Kim says we’ve never applied to Morro Bay because they don’t want to fund what’s south of them; Gary says that was true but not anymore. Chris says it is good CFSB is taking a lead role in the statewide effort to oppose MPA expansion.
Bill Blue is the President; Chris says maybe Garrett can help us because he knows those guys; Chris says they may have money for this work.
Chris says maybe we should ask for $30K to help us oppose new MPA’s and 30x30.
Gary says we can ask for both
Kim says she thinks we should apply to the Morro Bay committee grant, the South Bay grant, and apply for the Saturday Market somewhere in there too - Ava asks, so we’re competing with ourselves essentially? Kim asks for clarification from Gary on how they make those decisions, and Gary confirms that the committee tries to give all of the fisheries focused grants some money, but often they won’t get the full requested amount to better spread the funding around.
Ava and Jeff will get clarity on the Morro Bay Cable app deadline
Chris ends the meeting at 6:05PM upstairs in the harbor classroom.