CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - January 3, 2022

Attendance: Chris Voss, Bernard Friedman, Harry Liquornik, Gary Burke, Michael Harrington, John Colgate, Kim Selkoe, Mike Nelson, Jeff Maassen, Garrett Rose, Paul Teall, Andy Rasmussen, Zack Robinson

Notes: Ava Schulenberg

Agenda:

  • Andy Rasmussen

Andy requests 5 min to express his concerns and opinions of the major problems facing today’s commercial fishing industry

  • Offshore Wind

    • Public comment period ends 1/7 for BOEM’s Fisheries Mitigation Guidance - Submit here online, and please share your thoughts during this portion of the meeting so we can aggregate our port’s comments and submit in a communal format.

      • They are hoping to get additional feedback on any costs we have incurred as a result of offshore wind development, or any projected costs

        • This can include anything from lost revenue due to time spent in meetings and consultations, preparation of comments and other documents, actual costs of damage to gear, etc.

  • Chumash Sanctuary

  • Aquaculture Proposal

    • Atlas in the Southern CA Bight

    • Please keep this in mind as we also prepare for offshore wind; These two topics are important to keep close to each other as they have big spatial impacts on fisheries

    • NCEAS Engagement

  • Brief Updates:

    • Economic impact report

    • Stearns Wharf Ideas, Boiling Station

    • OceanRainforest

    • Time to pay dues 

    • Other news from members

Chris Voss opened the meeting on January 3, 2022 at 4:00pm. Meeting was held in person in the harbor classroom and via Zoom.

Agenda:

  • Andy Rasmussen

    • Rasmussen is disappointed that he was treated rudely at the last board meeting. He offered 4 things that he feels CFSB needs to more directly address:

  1. Marine Management plan: It’s here and now they’re working on halibut gillnets, lobbying, etc. and he has no way to contact the fish and game commission and lobby, he has testified at all but one of the webinars. He thinks this will be a huge problem for us in the near future and a massive problem in the long-term

  2. 30x30 on a federal and state level: Biden made an executive order to make 30% of all public lands by 2030 and we need politicians to kill this thing

    1. Selkoe responds this is something we have been tracking even though it’s not on the agenda today, we are definitely focused on it. There was a deadline from last month about the America the Beautiful act that Central Coast Fisheries responded to, she will share it out, it’s also something Mike Conroy and her are in touch about

    2. Selkoe emphasizes that we engaged in the state initiative with letter writing and submitting comments by survey. The bill was killed - a rare win. 

  3. Salmon fishery: It is in a dire state and this is weather related, another huge problem is fuel cost, this current administration is doing everything they can to make costs high, especially diesel, we need local politicians that are going to support this issue

  4. In the last meeting we were talking about fundraising and grants and Rasmussen was told that he was a hypocrite by Voss. Rasmussen was upset that this association is looking to get Build Back Better funds, when he feels the program will destroy the fishing industry. 

    1. Selkoe commented that the group pursuing Build Back Better money that we were invited to join was not successful. Note that the San Diego Fishermen’s Working Group also joined on this funding ask. We will look into how this bill could hurt the fishing industry, that is not something we were aware of.

  • Offshore Wind

    • Public comment period ends 1/7 for BOEM’s Fisheries Mitigation Guidance - Submit here online. Please share your thoughts during this portion of the meeting. We are working closely with Mike Conroy to hone talking points and include our comments into PCFFA’s letter.

      • Voss lets us know that Ken Bates in Eureka leading an effort to adapt the cable committee model up to handle all the impacts both short and long term. The goal is to collectively make an umbrella organization. Each community will have its own specific issues so the challenge is to develop a template that is a useful starting point for all.  

      • There are about 30 companies that are going to present their proposals to the three lead agencies (coastal commission, state lands, and BOEM) for approval, so we’re hoping to standardize approaches to engagement from all significantly impacted ports to be a united front. These companies will be corresponding with ports directly in addition to their conversations with the agencies, similar to the JOFLO model. Need to then develop the expertise to bring about agreements for each port.

      • Selkoe says it’s controversial within the fishing community when’s the key time to fight the impact on fishing and when is the time to engage in mitigation. The timeline given during the meeting we had in December is that the first time to intervene is the NEPA stage, but we think that might be too late. 

      • A second time for voicing opposition is the COP stage (construction operations plan), after a company is selected and presents their specific design. Also there will be a separate state process for implementing the cable lines. 

      • Selkoe emphasizes that we all must track the amount of hours and meetings we’re all doing to work on this because compensation should be part of the mitigation. Between OSW, the Chumash sanctuary, the aquaculture atlas, and 30x30, we are swamped and spending a lot on engagement. 

      • The attitude and engagement of our own waterfront dept. is critical - In other ports their waterfront dept have taken a proactive role because they understand how these issues impact the future of their harbors. We will work to elicit more engagement from our local government.

      • Voss described a meeting he had with Chris Potter with the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife to stress that we want to work directly with the lease companies and the agencies more than DFW.  They agreed that any conversation between DFW and the agencies should also be communicated to us. 

      • We want to form a subcommittee from our Board of those who are closest to the issue, like Gary Burke and Garrett Rose. Ava should be in charge of tracking the time spent and document time spent on this issue.

Voss makes a motion to form a OSW subcommittee of himself, Garrett Rose and Gary Burke. Liquornik seconds. 7-0-0 vote, unanimous approval.

  • Chumash Sanctuary

    • Our goal is to hammer on the need to put further checks in place to keep sanctuaries out of fisheries management, and we will support the leadership of central coast ports who are at ground zero. We have an opportunity to voice a need for keeping sanctuaries out of fisheries management as well with the new Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary plan update that is open for public review now too.

  • Aquaculture Atlas in the Southern CA Bight.

    • Selkoe reminds that there is a meeting on 1/11 to discuss this further, she says one of the main concerns we have so far is the fact that the maps they’re using seem to have a lot of errors in them. Also seems unlikely to have financial success of aquaculture that far offshore given fewer harvest days and risk of gear loss. 

    • First we need to understand the process more. How much of our time and money and energy do we want to spend trying to correct these maps?

    • We don’t think there’s a lot of substance to the sites chosen and it seems like it’s built on a house of cards.

    • Selkoe will reach out to other ports to understand their motivations to make their own proprietary maps of fishing grounds. Its well underway in North Coast and starting in Central. North Coast has OPC money for the costs, and Central Coast working with Carrie Pomeroy at Sea Grant. If we felt the benefits outweighed the downsides, there is a group at NCEAS/UCSB that would orchestrate the data collection and mapping pro bono. 

  • Brief Updates:

    • Economic impact report

      • BR will share completed version in the next board meeting

    • Stearns Wharf Ideas

      • Bigger festival events in late spring maybe. Serving food might be an issue because it might compete with the restaurants but serving food is the way to recoup costs. Need to talk to Tom White about it.

      • Teall says if we do a Saturday or Sunday market why not try and see what product we can sell, he says this might open up the opportunity for other fishermen to sell if they want to that haven’t been involved before. 

      • Teall encourages advertisement for the market that currently exists. 

      • Liquornik says we should plan a meeting for the Saturday market vendors 

    • Ocean Rainforest

      • We will have a port-wide meeting to discuss this, Dominic Mercaldo has expressed concern, along with Zack Robinson, so we will be setting that up soon

      • Selkoe reminds that it’s a tough situation because they’ve already been approved by the coastal commission for their 2 year project timeline.

      • Teall says this will have a major navigational issue in addition to those couple of guys who it directly impacts.

    • Time to pay dues 

      • We have a new website so please check it out and pay your dues online or in person 

    • Safety Grant 

      • Rasmussen says the safety grant is the best thing we do - guys can pay the membership money (the $70) to get the $500 for safety a year. 

      • There are three ways to get safety money: The county, CFSB, and guys can go to members of the cable committee itself (Gary Burke, Gerry Richter). 

      •  since these places all have the same list, what about making our list broader so we could include other types of equipment.

      • We can use our 2020 Cable Grant of $10,000 to replenish our Safety Grant fund, which is down to about $1000.

      • County just raised its reimbursement level to $1000 from $500. 

    • Cable Grants are due for 2022 

      • Voss makes a motion all in favor of writing a cable committee grant to cover staff costs to engage on wind energy, a rational approach to 30x30, open ocean aquaculture.  Colgate seconds. 7-0-0 vote stands, unanimous approval.

Chris Voss ended the meeting on January 3, 2022 at 5:58pm.