CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - March 5, 2024
Attendees: Ben Hyman, Shane Robinson, Michael Harrington, Chris Voss, Harry Liquornik, Gary Burke, Ed Anderson, Tony Luna, Andy Rasmussen, Zack Robinson, Ray Kennedy, Nick Tharp, Brian Colgate, Kristie Maingot (works with SB Fish Market), Jeff Maassen, Jeff Hepp, Marco Farrell, Jason Robinson
Notes: Ava Schulenberg
Agenda:
Financials
AB2220 (Gillnet Phase Out/Observers)
Oceana
Letter of opposition
Who pays for observers?
Lobbying
VCCFA Meeting Recap with Bennett
$1B bond for Offshore Wind
Seasketch Preliminary Mapping Data
Status update
Ocean Collective
Design firm will be looking at the site soon
Collab with Cal State Channel Islands
Urchin Removal Project
Salmon
Other
Trap Cleanup Thank You
2024 Membership Dues
Folks who haven’t paid were removed from the email list last month
New merchandise
Nick Tharp Stepping Down - Board seat needs to be replaced
Chris Voss starts the meeting at 4:10PM upstairs in the harbor classroom.
Agenda:
Financials
Kim pulls up 2023 financial statement that needs to be approved to send to the CPA; She goes over last year’s spending and says our overall financial status is good
Harry notes that the boatyard was hit with a big increase, rates will be bumped 12.5% this year
The $3k meeting cost was for the 2023 Christmas party, which was below budget and less spend than 2022
Travel expenses were small
Primarily for Chris and Ava to go to Monterey in March to attend the MPA decadal review meetings - Cheapest hotel was selected and hardly any food was expensed, all well within budget
Nothing was expensed when Ava and Harry went to Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle
Chris makes a motion to approve 2023 expenditures/bookkeeping, Ray seconds, 5-0-0 unanimous approval
AB2220 (Gillnet Phase Out/Observers)
Oceana
Letter of opposition
Who pays for observers?
Lobbying
VCCFA Meeting Recap with Bennett:
Ava and Gary attended the VCCFA board meeting Sunday evening 3/3 - Please contact either of them directly for a synopsis
Andy says this bill requires an observer to be on every commercial fishing boat; Unsure who we write a letter to
Ray says we also should write a letter from CLTFA so it’s being opposed from multiple sources
Ava has reached out to PCFFA to see what their lobbying capabilities are - Glen Spain let her know that he will speak to their new president, Lisa Damrosch, and see what they can do - Ava will follow up accordingly
Jeff Hepp when they shut down this fishery, how will restaurants/buyers survive like Colgate and Bill Sutton? Set gillnets might be a small fishery but they are still an extremely valuable source of food
Jeff calls Bill Sutton during the meeting and asks for his report on Bennett’s presence in the VCCFA meeting (that Gary and Ava were on)
Kim says one potentially good thing is that Fish and Game is in the middle of trying to do work on this fishery so they might not be supportive of this bill coming forward
We will write a letter and craft it/submit it strategically around the deadline
$1B bond for Offshore Wind
Ray says the most important thing we can do is mandate a comprehensive environmental impact report
Ray is concerned about a 1 time buy out
Chris says site surveys are starting in the next month so the companies that have purchased leases are starting their evaluative site processes very soon
Seasketch Preliminary Mapping Data
Status update
Ava has met with 17 Ventura/CI fishermen, 1 Morro Bay fisherman (who fishes in the channel), 30 from SB so far, more are scheduled
Ocean Rainforest has chosen a zone in federal waters off of Ventura and NOAA has given them heavy constraints of where they want their site to be; We won’t show them the whole map, we will just show them the area around their site and go from there
Harry confirms they have picked out a spot? Kim says NOAA gave them a zone that’s about ⅓ larger than the size they want to put in, so they don’t have much wiggle room, not sure if NOAAs word is the last word, but the next step is to overlay NOAAs map for them with our map so we can analyze the impact; This is the real deal not experimental; They are waiting for our map before they submit their official permanent application
Jeff says he was dragging the other day and they moved right into the experimental farm, was frustrating because they don’t understand fish move, there’s really no good spot, so we want to be sure they put this next one in a spot that’s not impactful
Kim says the important step is to go back with fishermen who put that they fish there and go over things more detailed with them
People ask why they don’t put it in an MPA? Kim says they likely don’t want any commercial extraction from MPAs, but in the proposed Chumash Sanctuary, they might allow for aquaculture or energy production
Ocean Collective
Design firm will be looking at the site soon
Kim says it would be better to have the engineering firm say that the site isn’t doable rather than us say it; It’s too early for us to say we can’t use that spot; It’s about 14,000 sq ft; Jeff Hepp says the problem is it’s not level, Chris says you could cut pads, but entry in and out is squirrely and Harry emphasizes not to waste money on this
Nick Tharp says he’s mentioned this before but we should reach out to his wife, Jess (landscape architect), who can help with site design for free if we need help putting together schematic plans; Nick says engineers are very expensive
Collaboration with Cal State Channel Islands
They are very excited to collaborate and have space on their campus and maybe have a spot in CI harbor, it’s a much nicer relationship but it’s down in Oxnard
Shane says what about Ventura Ave? There’s tons of area “for lease” all over; Harry says we also had potential space in Goleta, Chris says we can circle back on that
Shane also asks about the Veneco site that’s in Carp and Chris says that’s a good idea and a possibility and Kim says she’ll talk to Chevron; Harry says it’s zoned properly too
Update: Chevron says their Carp site is super constrained by CEQA and they can’t add any new uses to it. They said they could maybe put us in touch with another company that has land on the Gaviota coast. Also, Kim has a lead on leasing land at Dos Pueblos Ranch.
Urchin Removal Project
The Nature Conservancy has been working on piloting methods to work with fishermen to get urchin removal projects working well. They’ve already done it on the north coast and santa monica bay. They ask fishermen to choose a 1-2 acre site for a pilot project, then reef check comes and does a survey of the before state of urchins/kelp etc. and then 2 or 3 fishermen are paid to go remove purples down to a certain number (no more than 2 per sq meter), they land it on the docks with their normal permit and the grant money is used to pay the fishermen, and then we need to figure out how to dispose of them (smashing, dumping, fertilizer, that has not been decided yet), and then reef check monitors and survey the after situation to see if the kelp regrows and how the urchins respond.
If you clear the reef of purples, the kelp comes back, at least that’s what’s been shown in the pre-existing studies
Harry asks if it’s been approved - Kim says no it’s just in the idea phase, they are happy to work with us to orchestrate the whole thing and work on writing grants for it and there’s a local philanthropist who’s interested in funding this, so we would ask for about $250k to pick a pilot site; Harry says you want a small, discreet reef like Talcott Shoal would be impossible, so ideally you’re finding a reef that’s by itself that does have habitat, probably not north facing area because the kelp is so inconsistent, Harry says the areas up in the bite might not be bad, maybe Crooks Shane suggests
If we want to do this this summer we need to get on it now; It sounds like there’s a lot of positive feedback. Harry asks if we need to ask the board for guidance, Kim says yes because it will take a lot of her time. Harry says he’s good with it because the framework is good so Harry says it’s worthwhile. Harry says there was urchin disaster money, covid care act, a bunch of money came in but it was directed up there first for kelp because they got hit the hardest
Jeff Hepp says the Kitaharas got paid $1000 a day to dive for the project on the north coast
Doug Bush might be involved regarding whether he might be able to take some of the purples and grow them at the Ab Farm; Harry says they’re grow time is too long
Kim says the nice thing about this is that there’s no permitting step
Harry makes a motion for Kim to start working with TNC and begin the grant writing process, Chris seconds, unanimous approval 5-0-0 vote stands
Salmon
Jeff Hepp says the decision should be coming up in the next week
Other
Trap cleanup Thank You
Next cleanup will likely be 4/13 (or 5/11)
Harry says coordinate with the lifeguards in the City for quads, map out a bunch of minus tide days through the course of the year and say hey we’d like to designate these days to doing cleanups to try and coordinate these cleanups ahead of time
Ray says CLTFA has a plan to try to find funding to get and ATV with a trailer that’s regulated by speed
Ava is going to work on quantifying the data to share a comprehensive report at the end of the season
Ray also emphasizes that we don’t want to give any reason for a ¼ mile off the beach barrier be implemented for coastal lobster fishermen
Tony speaks up and says it’s not fair to say all coastal guys are bad, he cleans up Carp vigorously (Ava confirms that); Ray apologizes and says there’s a difference between responsible and irresponsible people
2024 Membership Dues
Folks who haven’t paid were removed from the email list last month, those who pay will be added back accordingly
Harry says we should still allow people in meetings who haven’t paid but then if it comes to an item that needs discretion we reserve the right to kick anybody out
Ava emphasizes that people being removed from the emails/not allowed at meetings is about fairness to those who pay - What are they paying for if everyone gets everything? Dues have not been raised in years, it’s not a big ask to pay up out of fairness
New merchandise
Ray says talk to Chava in Goleta who worked with CLTFA
Tony Luna says to reach out to him too because he has experience in design - Ava will follow up with him accordingly
Nick Tharp Stepping Down - Board seat needs to be replaced
Nick says he’s happy to stick around until we fill the seat
Ava will reach out to everyone and see who’s interested, sounds like Jason Woods and Ben Hyman would be great options because they’ve both expressed interest
Jeff Hepp suggests Jason based on a recent meeting he had with him
Cable Committee
Jeff Hepp says a week from today the cable committee makes a decision
Chris Voss ends the meeting at 5:46PM.