CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - January 23, 2024
Attendees: Kim Selkoe, Chris Voss, Mike Nelson, Harry Liquornik, Ray Kennedy, Jeff Hepp, Randy Hughes, Ryan Wong, Adrian Stimson, Mary Nishimoto, Gary Burke, James Voss, Dion Dante, Andy Rasmussen, Garrett Rose, Tony Luna, John Hoadley, Michael Harrington, Nick Tharp, Mike Kenny, Marco Farrell
Notes: Ava Schulenberg
Agenda:
Offshore Wind Update
Financials
Cable Committee Grant
Saturday Market
Ocean Collective
Kelp forest restoration/scientific diving project
Board of advisors
Loma alta site
Replacing Paul’s Board Seat - Jeff Hepp has been elected
Alternate: Ben Hyman or Jason Woods
Trap cleanups
Thomas Dabney’s E-bike
Ray’s Hope Ranch truck/trailer accessibility
Tidy Seas
Fishing the Line Law Enforcement - Ray Kennedy
MPAs
Pop-up Gear
Annual Donations?
Salmon
Other
2024 membership dues
Ava’s hours for trap cleanup work - CLTFA or CFSB?
Chris Voss starts the meeting at 4:06PM upstairs in the harbor classroom. Please note, there were technical issues at this meeting that prevented us from being able to project anything and have a stable connection with those on Zoom. Harbor maintenance was notified and said they would attempt to fix the HDMI/projector problem so we don’t run into this problem again going forward.
Agenda:
Financials - Some pulled this up on their phones since the projector wasn’t working
Gary asks about the non-profit consulting category - Kim confirms that’s her work and how she has worked nights and evenings on these grants and had she anticipated it would be that much she would have approached it differently, but hopefully those costs will all be covered in the spring if we get the $500k grant
Jeff asks Mike Nelson what the grant lady he spoke to at Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle charged and Mike says much more; Kim charges less than most grantwriters
Financials could not be formally discussed/approved due to technical issues with the projector - We will review at the next meeting
Ocean Collective
The latest is that SBCC is on board and people are starting to realize that this could actually happen. We’ll find out on 1/25 if we get the blessing of the last committee and then progress to the engineering firm stage (update: we got approvals and are in process of lining up a firm)
The site, downhill from the Marine Diving building on Loma Alta, has about 15,000sq ft of buildable land
The location has moved from the lower parking lot to the upper area due to the coastal commission’s concern about sea level rise and college’s need to keep all their parking spaces.
We need input from CFSB members on how to divide up the space in terms of containers vs boat storage - Stacking either option has also been brought up
We need to draft a lease agreement and figure out what fishermen are willing to pay to have space there
SBCC wants to have programs that their students will benefit from
We’ve talked about workforce development programs and potentially a kelp restoration project that involves a scientific dive certification program
A coastal dive program might be more accessible than the islands - We will need input from fishermen on specific sites
Mike Kenny says he read something about the Ocean Collective and says it all sounds great and it was well written (not sure if it was the grant proposal or something else)
Nick says he knows someone who’s making little fish processing containers and Chris says that would be great and Kim emphasizes we are looking to collaborate with these kinds of people in any way possible
Guy from the EDC has advised us to form a board for this collective which we would like to have encompassed folks from fishing, academics, other blue economy stakeholders, fishermen from other nearby ports, etc. Would like fishermen’s input on names for this too.
Chris says Ted Roche (Shaun’s dad) is an advisor for MDT - He is an example of someone who could be really helpful in this type of project
Offshore Wind Update
New map of more call areas SB525 mandated a report (agencies and legislators) impacts of wind on communities and potential means to mitigate. It refers to SB286 that protects fishermen along the lines of the coastal act and reinforces the role of the 7c working group. The 7c is supported by the Coastal Commission with $5 million from the governor's office. All the energy companies, CA Energy Commission, Coastal staff, BOEM and NOAA staff are in the room. The 7c working group has three separate tasks: Best practices for site surveys and communication, fishing community mitigation agreement, and fishery impacts. Community benefit organizations will function like the cable committees.
Need to stress the need for before and after data to know what the impacts are from surveying and port activity. Plus there’s ENSO and other climate factors confusing the effects
Chris has stressed the economic impact to the most impacted ports. Figure out the dollar values of total catch at the port level and use it as a baseline. Build the framework for mitigation and put in placeholders that are related to the baseline data to compare against new impacts and other variables (E.g., fish scared off the grounds by acoustic surveys). Put the history and the methodology on paper out the gate so it can’t be contested and use the catch data and dollar values as the years go by to understand the impacts and then release the mitigation funds.
Want to make the mitigation spatial -Tthere are 5 different leases of different sizes. Put a dollar value on a square mile of ocean for fish catch and if that square mile is taken by wind lease, then we have the mitigation amount to put into the benefit organization. Same thing for the footprint of the cables. Cable committees set the precedent for the per mile value of the cables. Basically a formula that is fair and predictable for both parties. The problem is all the unknowns (e.g. upwelling could decline or electromagnetic fields cause impacts). Set up funds like bonds that come into play if these things happen. Adjusted for price increases and inflation.
Humboldt already set up their benefit organization - California Fishermen’s Resiliency Association (Ken Bates group) is administering the OPC funds that provide the stipends to the 7c members. So the state is already recognizing the validity of these organizations by giving the money through CFRF. So we have precedent and blueprints and they are already performing.
Impacts will be horrendous. Humboldt bay will be closed for weeks at a time for all the activity. Bay needs to be totally redredged.
$700million put into the treasury from the 5 leases.
Sounding work is going to begin very soon and there is no monitoring in place or mitigation in place for that. Sounding will be at the cable pathways and the lease sites and the decibel levels are going to scare the fish. But the agencies are saying just going 30 meters into the substrate is way less intense than what was done for oil and there was some data used from other places to set the threshold allowed.
This is an example of a placeholder that needs to be agreed on so that it can be worked out in the future how to mitigate for the fishing impacts from sounding.
Harry Heibach at Morro Bay Fishermen’s Marketing Association is well versed in the Castle Wind agreement.
All pre-existing approaches have been made available and will be assessed as they figure out the framework for the benefit organizations and mitigation systems.
Ray asks what kind of comprehensive environmental impact report has been done if any? Garrett says the government was initially claiming there is no env impact. Kim clarifies that the waiver on environmental impact approval was for the survey work for the first 5 years, not the actual build. Chris says none of the agencies at this point have any teeth in enforcing anything which is a big challenge that we face and one of the work products of our group be suggesting to the legislature that they pass legislation that protects state lands through holding the wind energy companies accountable
Mary says there will be environmental impact statements for individual leases but not for a while. Put in BOEM wind energy notice of intent for programmatic EIS online
Mike Kenny asks about how much of what’s going on on the east coast impacts us here. Chris says there is an effort to band fishermen together and that him and Kim met with stakeholders from the Gulf of Mexico last week to discuss impacts of offshore wind on coastal communities
Chris says nothing on the east coast is floating but Mike says there are still transfer lines
Mike says they’re boasting a quantifiable number of positive economic impact and Chris says they’re of course going to boast about that
Nick asks about the cost of the energy and Chris says their projections changed dramatically with inflation and the cost of developers get transferred to us; Nick emphasizes that the cost for the consumer will be triple what it is now and Mike says it could be 4 or 5x, more than 3
Kim says the lifespan of blades is not that long
Mike asks if they’re incorporating wave energy at all into this and Chris says no
Mike says the agenda is similar to the sanctuary process
Chris says it’s trading one environmental disaster for another
Replacing Paul’s Board Seat - Jeff Hepp has been elected via an email thread with other board members
Alternates: Ben Hyman and Jason Woods
Jeff chooses Ben Hyman to be his alternate - Ben accepts
Harry elects Jason Woods to be his alternate - Jason accepts via text message as he is not present at the meeting
Salmon
Ben says there’s been a lot of talk about mitigation funds but lately it’s been crickets; He says the likelihood of us having a season is extremely low; If there is a season it will be poor; He says they should fix the problem and let them fish and have a good season when it’s time, not to force it and have it be poor
Jeff says Lori French called him this morning and she said everyone she’s spoken to says there won’t be a season
Gary says come the March council meeting, we will have an answer
Trap cleanups
Thomas Dabney’s E-bike
Thomas called Ava over the weekend to let her know that he has an e-bike with a trailer that we can use for cleanups. He is just getting the axle fixed on his bike this week but come next week and ongoing he said we are welcome to use it; I thanked him for this generous offer and assured him that we will still try to figure out our own e-bike situation but it’s great to know that we can borrow his with his permission until CFSB/CLTFA is able to nail down our own long-term solution
Ray’s Hope Ranch truck/trailer accessibility
Ray emphasizes how bad the problem is on the coast and how few people are actually doing something about it
Ray, Ava, and his son went to do a small cleanup at HR beach but a day after bringing them to the launch ramp, the tags were harvested. We know whose they were, only one guy said thank you, but it’s a disgusting situation and disappointing that people are not willing to cleanup what’s theirs
We are looking into funding to purchase an ATV or E-bike of our own to help solve this problem
If this goes on, we may see something like a ¼ mile corridor where we can’t fish that range and that would be an enormous problem with an enormous environmental impact; If it gets to this point lobster permits/boats/gear will be worth a fraction of what it’s worth now
Ben says he has spoken with the new ranger at Hendrys
He says he was able to get 70 off the beach in 1 day last year during a cleanup
Mike asks if it would be helpful to involve fish and wildlife and Dion says no, so does Ray.
Tony says it’s easy to get your gear off the beach with the hauling system but guys don’t want to do it
Tony suggests a fine system through CLTFA potentially
Tony patrols Carp a lot and the system that we have where Ava sends pictures out is working but some fishermen are too lazy
We just don’t understand why people are so lazy about it, you’re losing that trap and everything you could have made off that trap, that could be $1000, and there are repeat offenders that need to be reprimanded
Gary says keep the tag and charge people to give their trap back
John says guys who have enough money have no incentive because they can simply pay to just buy more gear
Chris says make the tags last 2 years
Ray says the catastrophic gear loss clause has to go through the commission; 75 is the minimum before you can access the clause, at that point your season is over by the time they approve that request so I don’t think we need to remove that because it’s a moot point, it’s rarely used
Ryan Wong from Tidy Seas is a lifelong fisherman, he also works at SB Motor Sports. He is here to introduce himself and talk about what his organization does - He says he just started this 501c3 and he has access to quads etc. which would help with making our cleanup efforts more efficient. In about 3 months they’ll have their official non-profit status but until now he has been focused on beach cleanups all over the SB area
Ray asks if he has had much trouble with access and law enforcement; Ryan says he hasn’t used quads on the beach yet, mostly using wagons at this point, but it’s something to consider
Ryan says Polaris makes an electric side by side which could be a great option
Ray says there are manufacturers that might want to contribute to this from an advertising standpoint
Mike says there must be specific training for navigating a motor vehicle on the beach for law officers, maybe there’s a way to talk to them about access to that training and how that might aid us in getting access on the beach
Nick says a surf sled for big waves maybe will work? Ray and Dion say a soft top works great too
The group thanks Ryan for all the work he’s done thus far and we look forward to collaborating with him
Sanctuary Cleanups
Chris says Sanctuary people got a big grant to do cleanups around the country, including Channel Islands, and he says there’s a total of 10 boat days for fishermen to come forth and help and you will be paid; It’s a coordinated effort around the shearwater
John, Ben, and Adrian say they are available and willing to help this year
Fishing the Line Law Enforcement - Ray Kennedy
They’re starting to enforce even buoys over the line not just traps over the line
Mike Kenny says in a swell event and people are corking the line, what are you going to do
Ray says enforcement is coming down the pike for the lines; Luna says the wheels of justice turn slowly but be sure to be on top of it because there has been a change in the attitude
Dion says he’s seen serious enforcement as of last week
MPAs
The commission has opened the floodgates for people to submit edits to the MPAs and there’s been submissions to carp reef and Miguel; We’re not really sure when and how to engage; We’ve talked with Susan Ashcraft about this and there will be a rulemaking package that will take a long time but we’re hoping this first package won’t be too controversial
Instead of the long drawn out process to start the MPAs, it’s now being democratized with people and environmental orgs inputting whatever they want but Susan said there’s been a big influx and it’s a lot of work so it will be a slow moving process
Pop-up Gear
Chris says anybody can petition DFW to pursue an experimental permit to use ropeless gear, that’s happened all over the state not just here, so we don’t need to turn on each other
Tony says as a port, we all decided we wouldn’t support this; Ray says CFSB is unable to do anything about stopping this because it’s individual’s prerogatives to bring this forward; Ray says he’s spoken to a fisherman who has brought this forward and told him to be careful because it’s a dangerous precedent to set
Garrett asks why this is being brought up again and people in the room say because Greg Olsen began deploying gear over the weekend
Ray says he has never been a proponent of this idea because it’s something we could avoid by using a 600 lb breakaway swivel; Adrian asks if this has been brought up and Ray says no because he was told not to bring it up; Dion says he’s been using this on his crab traps
Garrett says they’re going to be running trap trawls up the coast for Dungeness
Ray says the introduction of this could cause electromagnetic interference with this technology too so he calls for a comprehensive environmental impact report
Cable Committee Grant
Saturday Market
Gary says there might be a little more money this year, depends on whether the funds come in or not
Kim says we’re trying to give the Sat Market some more autonomy
Harrington asks if the Sat Market we have to decide how we want the accounting to go if it will come from grants or their own costs; Chris says both
Kim asks if CLTFA could also submit an app for trap cleanup efforts; Are we competing efforts? Gary says sort of they look at the budget overall and see how it will help fishing related initiatives across the board
Annual Donations?
$500 to each of these is brought up - Harry makes a motion to fund the donations, Ray seconds, unanimous approval (7-0-0 vote stands) Ava will work with Michael Harrington (bookkeeper) to get these sent out
Other
2024 membership dues
Reminder to please pay your 2024 dues either online or by coordinating with Ava to give a check or cash. A big thank you to all who have already joined!
Ava’s hours for trap cleanup work - CLTFA or CFSB?
Ava does not invoice for hours spent cleaning, just coordination of cleaning efforts; If CLTFA gets more funding from potentially cable grants, there could be more funding for Ava and Tidy Seas
Over half of CLTFA members are in Santa Barbara and they’re paying larger dues
Ray and Chris agree to split Ava’s invoicing
Chris Voss ends the meeting at 6:04PM.