CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - July 11, 2022

Attendees: Chris Voss, Mike Nelson, Tony Luna, Cliff Kent, Gary Burke, John Colgate, Paul Teall, Andy Rasmussen, Michael Harrington, Nathan Rosser, Zack Robinson, Jeff Maassen

Notes: Ava Schulenberg

Agenda:

  1. Plains Oil Settlement

  2. Fishermen for Ukraine CFSB Donation

  3. Decommissioning Chevron rigs

  4. Proposed Rule for Groundfish Non-Trawl Logbook Requirement

  5. AOA Public Comment Letter

  6. Fuel/inflation letter clarification

  7. 2021 Financials Approval

  8. Wharf Wednesday

  9. Other

    1. Cruise ship seafood collaboration

Chris Voss opened the meeting on July 11, 2022 at 4:03pm. Meeting was held in person in the harbor classroom and via Zoom.

Agenda:

  1. Plains Oil Settlement

    • ~$125 Million just for the commercial fisheries, of the $125 Million, there’s a percentage that goes to processors/buyers, so there will be about $115 Million to be distributed amongst fishermen

    • There’s a 180 day interval where everybody has an opportunity to apply, once the 180 days is over, then they make the calculation which is based on the number of applicants and it will be proportional to what’s left

    • There’s a 90 day window to file a claim from July 31st to October 31st and then the settlement administrator has 180 days what share each applicant gets

    • Colgate asks about crew who do not have fish tickets

      1. Chris says there’s a simple application with categories so you can have the option to apply in a fast and easy way

    • Michael Harrington asks where you can file a claim - Which Chris answers it will be mailed and we will also distribute the application via Mailchimp before the 31st of this month

    • Chris asks if you have different landings from the green blocks vs the yellow on the graphic that Tony Luna provided. Tony answers by saying yellow is no groudfish or migratory species (about 55 blocks), so the 3 green blocks that are adjacent to the spill are any catch that qualify for a payout

    • They are quantifying the claims by time (5 years before/5 years after the spill)

    • They are shooting for a $5k fixed share for any applicants, but there could be up to 2200 claims, but if people don’t show up, these numbers will be greater, if there are more than 2200 claims, obviously it will be less money per share

    • Just by supplying your L number, you’re qualifying for a fixed share and will be mailed an application automatically

    • We have asked a local firm to come to our next board meeting and help clarify things, so we will stay engaged and try to understand some of the unique situations of this process

  2. Fishermen for Ukraine CFSB Donation

    • We need to determine how much we want to donate on top of the net revenue that was made for the event ($9,067.82 does not include other donations that were made directly to WCK the night of the event which was an additional ~$8k)

    • Colgate asks for more information on WCK - Chris explains their background and helps the group better understand their mission/what they’ve done with other communities, particularly with Ukraine

Paul makes a motion to just contribute the admin/staff time, no additional contribution, Gary seconds, unanimous approval (4:0:0 vote stands)

  1. Decommissioning Chevron rigs

    • This is a long term situation, but Chevron has quit pumping in 5 wells because they are no longer considered profitable, so the decommissioning is still a very controversial discussion. 

    • They’re trying to pass legislation for the “rigs to reefs” initiative which has positive and negative implications from our perspective as fishermen because if the rigs are fully removed, this would cause a lot of upwelling of toxic materials and would be a loss of a productive environment, but if it’s passed, then those productive zones remain intact, but Chevron would retain large sums of money by not having to fully remove the sites.

    • If they just chop off the top, it would be ~40-80ft down, and then the remaining towers would disintegrate on their own over time, but they would still have to maintain them and make sure they do not leak any oil

    • Chevron is willing to engage with us as a fishing community. They’ve supported the Girls Club of Carp, Oceana, the Maritime Museum, and other organizations in town. 

    • Andy says he could live with the cutoff rigs, but there is definitely salmon fishing going on there at times.

      1. Gary is not so sure because for dragging it’s terrible, you can snag even at 80ft - He feels that even if it’s super productive, the sport guys will fish it out within a couple weeks. He also says it’s a giant liability - since you can’t see them, it’s very dangerous and anything can get caught on them.

    • Jeff wants to know if Chris and Mike’s discussions, if they advocated for using those zones for aquaculture or any biofowling that he’s been pursuing for the past 5 years?

      1. Chris says all the brainstorming around that is focused around platform Holly because it’s in state waters, but Chevron isn’t going to allow any repurposing without the liability release

      2. Jeff believes there is a viable economic opportunity if we were to repurpose those for the fleet and the community here and feels it’s worthy of exploring/developing those options

  2. Proposed Rule for Groundfish Non-Trawl Logbook Requirement

    • Paul says it doesn’t sound that crazy, it’s just filling out a log at the end of the day

  3. AOA Public Comment Letter

    • Our draft letter was sent out today for review. It’s a letter of opposition drafted by Kim Selkoe 

    • Gary says they will want to farm whatever they can, yellowtail, shrimp, etc. and this should be included in the letter  

    • Andy says they always put these projects on charts that have no true depth information, but they should put these projects on a NOAA chart so we know what we’re looking at. It looks like Ventura is going to just get crushed, they should be vehemently opposed to it

      1. Chris says if we were to accurately characterize the direct impacts from these farms, we need to get definitely all the guys from CI/Ventura to weigh in as well, it all needs to be fleshed out

  4. Fuel/inflation letter clarification

    • Chris’ pushback on this is if we want to address fuel, we should ask more for our fish. We could write a letter to our county board of supervisors to reduce fuel costs, but Harrington says we’re not an oil company so why waste our time on this

      1. Andy says we need to lower fuel costs and increase production - He spoke to Wendy at Carbajal’s office

      2. Gary doesn’t see how anything will change unless we vote when the time comes, unless we change the political climate, there’s not much else we can do

    • Nathan says he works partly in oil and also commercial fishing - As fishermen, we have to look at if the oil companies have done us more harm or benefit over the last 30 years, it’s hard to say if we’re in support of them or against them. We need to evaluate if we’re for them or against them so we can convince the county to increase their production, or propose them

      1. Everyone agrees with Andy’s frustration, but we are not sure how we can support besides just writing a letter 

      2. Chris says that maybe it wouldn't be completely out of the question that we get some kind of fuel subsidy since we get this for safety supplies, etc. based on what Steve Scheiblaur has told him about 

  5. 2021 Financials Approval

    • Ava sent out financial documentation earlier for the board to review and approve to be submitted to the IRS

Chris makes a motion to approve the 2021 final draft 2 financial statements and 2021 taxes as presented and then he will move forward to get it filed, John seconds the motion, unanimous approval (4:0:0 vote stands) 

  1. Wharf Wednesday

    • Ava tabled at the recent Wharf Wednesday and primarily advertised for the Saturday Market, but also generally spread the word about CFSB

    • Hats were sold, folks signed up for our emails, stickers were given out, but people wanted seafood/to meet and chat with fishermen, so for the next event in August/September it would be great to potentially get an uni bar or crab station going, because we have reached out to the Shellfish co. numerous times, but have never heard back, plus our station would be set up very far from the end of the pier (by the Sea Center vs. the end where the Shellfish Co. is) 

  2. Other

    • Cruise ship seafood collaboration

      1. Chris suggests handing this over to Brian/Laslo - Ava will connect the two parties. It would be great if they paid Brian a huge amount and then some of that was passed on to the fishermen

      2. Tony Luna thinks it’s a great idea because there’s a handful of us here who would like to sell to them - We could easily sell if it’s whole, but we need to figure out if it’s whole fish that they want or portioned/fileted. This could be great for the little guys 

    • Marine Resource Committee for the fish and game commission meeting on Thursday

Chris Voss ended the meeting on July 11, 2022 at 5:43pm.