CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - January 30, 2023
Attendees: Paul Teall, Mike Conroy, Chris Voss, Gary Burke, Mike Nelson, Nick Tharp, Garrett Rose, Michael Harrington, Ray Kennedy, Kim Selkoe, Bernard Friedman, Jeff Maassen, Andy Rasmussen, Marco Farrell, Steve Escobar, Harry Liquornik
Notes: Ava Schulenberg
Agenda:
Trap Loss on the Beach - Ray Kennedy
SBCC Update
RODA Update from Mike Conroy
RODA Donation?
Maritime Museum Donation - $1000
Harbor Commission Update, dredge, slips, etc. - Mike Nelson
Loan assistance/direct financial relief options
Pay 2023 Membership Dues
Spring Elections
The Alliance and PCFFA Donation?
2022/2023 Financials
Chris Voss opened the meeting on January 30th 2023 at 3:01pm. Meeting was held in person in the harbor classroom and via Zoom.
Minutes:
Trap Loss on the Beach - Ray Kennedy:
Ray found 80 vinyl traps along a half-mile stretch at Hope Ranch Beach. Some have tags
Ray wants us to approach Marborg to donate a container or two - One for recycling one for trash, see if they will sort of “sponsor” a cleanup for us to do
Hope Ranch residents will likely be willing to come help
Chris emphasizes that we will be planning cleanups after the season but it’s important that we do this now as well given the historic nature of this storm event
We will need vehicles on the beach.
SBCC Update
Kim updated the board by email (there is a link in the email to watch the presentation we gave) - Kim spoke before the board of trustees and there was a unanimous vote of support for us to implement a boat yard which is very exciting news. There was one trustee who had safety concerns which we will address. We had a call with the coastal conservancy to get their two cents and they seem very supportive of funding the boatyard project. Essentially, if we jump through all the hoops, SBCC is likely to green light the project.
Harry has a concern about throwing money at it and then having it not work out.
We will be coming back to the board with updates before spending significant money on this.
The size that we’ve proposed is ~9,000sq ft which is about 20% of the lot. Could possibly go bigger if there is demand.
This would be a great revenue stream for them and would be an opportunity for students to potentially learn about fisheries management and create a pipeline for the Marine Tech program students that might be interested in commercial fishing. 80% of the world’s fisheries are small-scale artisanal, only 20% are the big ones, so this would be a great learning opportunity not only for SBCC students to be close to this.
Kim shows a mockup of the space (Lot 3), reach out to her if you’d like a copy.
We want to get a sense of what lease rates would be, and assess demand and willingness to pay. We’ll be paying a lease to SBCC which is to be negotiated, but they need to know how much money we can generate per square foot first.
Garrett asks if there will be power which Kim says hopefully - there is power nearby for the street lights. Might increase the cost of the project but we should be able to get grant coverage for what we need. Water and drainage is another topic.
Paul asks if this will be storage only or if there’s maintenance allowed to which Chris says we haven’t yet determined what will be allowed and what wouldn’t. Paul says if there’s sanding and grinding and other stuff going on, that might be a big issue, Harry agrees that we will probably not want to do that and just keep it simple.
The current yard has a waitlist of about 30 folks and based on Ava’s survey last year, the demand is absolutely there for more space so hopefully this is able to meet some of our needs.
RODA Update from Mike Conroy
Mike says line marking is coming in one way or another - Any lobster trap fishermen will have to use a line with a specific tracker on it so that if they see it on a whale, they can hold fisheries accountable.
For every unknown whale entanglement that happens, the Dungeness crab industry gets the blame so it’s important that they don’t always take the blame
RODA has been around for about 5 years and they are now up to 35 west coast members, 4 staff members. Mike was brought on to focus on west coast-specific issues. There are no recreational members, only the commercial fishing industry.
They don’t take the position that they are opposed to offshore wind. However, Mike emphases that the BOEM process does not ensure fair results.
RODA has been working on the regulatory level to weigh in on the siting, leasing, review process etc. as it relates to offshore wind.
RODA was on a call with the coastal commission recently to try and get money from the energy commission so that when the leases are executed, they’ll be able to formulate a working group. All the offshore wind working groups on the east coast have been abject failures, so it’s important to have this working group that has learned about what has gone wrong and how things could be improved so we don’t fall victim to the same issues that the east coast has faced.
RODA is currently suing the agencies challenging BOEM’s efforts in aborting the Vineyard 1 offshore wind project. This lawsuit is in the motioning phase and will be going on for a while.
The lease sites that were sold off will have a ‘name-plate’ ability to generate 5GW. In August of 2022 the state said the goal is 25GW by 2045, so they need to figure out where to build 20 more GW.
Chris says the the most heavily impacted ports should be prioritized for representation in the working group (Eureka and Morro Bay).
Chris says we’ve worked to convince the coastal commission that the cable committee model would be a good model to use. It might not apply to OR and WA but in CA we’ve convinced them to reference that model.
Mike says that in terms of compensation/mitigation it comes in 3 forms - 1 is Compensatory mitigation designed to offset lost fishing revenue. Bucket 2 is what the cable committees are designed to do which is to provide a recurring stream of revenue designed to make the fishing industry more resilient in the face of these things. The 3rd bucket is gear loss and it appears this component is going to be more between the leaseholders and the impacted fishermen which is in alignment with what happens on the east coast now. This will be hundreds of millions of dollars and the claims process will be extensive. There is a difference in opinion between 2 groups in CA - The Morro Bay model vs Eureka (Ken Bates says CFRA is the functional equivalent of the South Bay Cable committee where they make funds available to fishermen). Mike says the east coast is looking at the cable committee model to handle resiliency payments.
Kim says when we had the Plains oil spill a local economist calculated lost revenues and this framework might be applicable for mitigation calculations from lost grounds. Chris says he would assume the wind companies would be scared based on how the Plains situation went down, but Mike says they’re not and they don’t care and would just laugh at a similar situation because they do not have an obligation to pay based on the language in the fed guidelines.
Mike Nelson asks what role the energy dept plays in this in terms of following the money. they awarded a grant to the humboldt bay harbor of $10.5 mill so is the dept of energy someone that we should approach or should we be coordinating solely with the coastal commission? Mike Conroy says it’s hard to keep track of who’s responsible for what - The Energy commission is like OPC so even though they pull strings they don’t have any authority to take action with anything offshore wind related. In a way, they write the checks that everyone has to place the orders for.
Chris asks if it would be good to join RODA and he says yes and that they are expanding their board and can add 5 west coast members. We will look online for cost information and make a vote to join.
Gary asks if they were to file a lawsuit on the east coast does that stop things or does everything just keep going? Mike says when they filed the lawsuit, they asked for an injunction of BOEM to halt permitting, etc. but it was unsuccessful. They hired a NEPA specialist lawyer to do this.
Membership Vote - $2000 for CFSB to Join
Gary suggests we should wait on this one and Paul agrees because it’s still early in the year so we will wait and see.
Maritime Museum Donation - $1000
They have supported us a lot in the past (i.e. Fishermen for Ukraine event at no cost) and if we donate this amount we are qualified for the “Navigator Circle”
Harry suggests we see where we’re at halfway through the year and donate $1000 now and potentially more later.
Harry makes a motion to make a $1000 donation to the maritime museum, Paul seconds the motion, unanimous approval (5-0-0 vote stands).
Harbor Commission Update, dredge, slips, etc. - Mike Nelson
Loan assistance/direct financial relief options
Please review the email that Ava sent out with links/current options - We will communicate any other options we come across as we continue to research options.
The harbor commission met about a week and a half ago and there was obvious displeasure with how the dredging was handled. The city was notified 3 or 4 days in advance but they neglected to communicate this until the last minute. There was a long conversation around who to blame if it was Wiltshire, Erik, or Brian Adair’s fault - At the end of the day what matters is that the city needs to have some kind of emergency management plan especially with these types of storms and hazard management. Nobody on the harbor commission is satisfied with the response that was received and the way the situation was handled.
Chris says Jaime Diamond noticed that the harbor mouth was silting in before the storm, there was definitely notice that they could have acted upon earlier. Ava sent an email with more details that can be referenced on the details of our meeting with the waterfront department.
Harry says right outside the wharf needs to be dredged too because there’s a high spot where it’s creating a wave so if they care about the wharf they’ll need to dredge that.
At the meeting, Mike requested the slip subcommittee meet to respond to this issue of slips and the discovery of the 19% commercial requirement in the coastal commission waterfront plan. There’s about 8% of the harbor (only ~83 commercial slips), so our harbor is currently not within the rule set forth by the coastal commission.
Could commercial boats be prioritized to fill slips as they become available? Attrition does happen occasionally but it’s rare (e.g., Raleigh’s slip from John Wilson).
Garrett asks about commercial guys in guest slips which Ray and Tony have collected that there are ~50 commercial boats in recreational slips. He is shocked by this and says that we are clearly not valued by the waterfront dept. As shown through the lack of slips.
Mike emphasizes that we do have support from the city council on this issue.
Ava will communicate when the Harbor Commission subcommittee meeting will take place once they set it up.
Pay 2023 Membership Dues
As a reminder, 2023 dues are due NOW, so please pay online or via cash/check in person to Ava. Pay online here: http://www.cfsb.info/take-action
You cannot be a Saturday Market Vendor without being a CFSB member.
Spring Elections
Harry suggests we send a notice out to garner attention and see who might be interested. Add language that encourages folks to participate.
Kim emphasizes we need to have alternates as well. Any alternate has a vote if one or more of the 7 board members are not present for a vote. So, they can sway an outcome if there is a missing board member. Typically alternates are proposed by board members and approved by the board.
Marco Farrell is interested in being an alternate.
The Alliance and PCFFA Donation?
Chris will look into the cost of joining the Alliance (Central Coast Only) - He makes a motion to pay $1,000 or less if that’s how much it costs to become a member, to do it, Paul seconds the motion. Unanimous Approval (5-0-0 vote stands).
If we donate to PCFFA it should be $1,000
PCFFA used to be funded by D crab and salmon but right now they have to get money from grants and are struggling.
Harry makes a motion to donate $1,000 to PCFFA and Gary seconds it. Unanimous approval (5-0-0 vote stands).
2022/2023 Financials
Harry says doing this at the beginning of the meeting would be best and Garrett agrees and suggests doing it at the next meeting. Kim asks how time sensitive it is to finalize the financials from last year - Michael says it can wait a month. Everything is recorded and reconciled and the numbers are finalized so Kim will send this out to the board members for them to review and everyone can approve the draft by email.
Other:
We’d like your input on staff priorities for 2023. For sure we have:
Waterfront Dept relations and slip advocacy
SBCC Project
Also, we voted previously to create a map of fishing grounds in the Channel with Sea Sketch
Paul says there’s a new e-reporting for any groundfish fisherman that is required while you are fishing. They did not reach out but it is in effect so if you get boarded you’ll get cited/arrested. There is an app that will work even when you don’t have wifi and it’s pretty easy to use. You only need to record it when you are intentionally fishing for groundfish. Ava will send out more information via email.
Chris Voss ended the meeting on January 30th, 2023 at 5:09pm.