CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - August 21, 2023
Attendees: Gary Burke, Miles Wallace, Chris Voss, Mike Nelson, Ray Kennedy, Eliza Harrison, Ben Hyman, Nick Tharp, Andy Rasmussen, Dave Colker, Jeff Maassen, Jaime Diamond, James Voss, Harry Liquornik, Garrett Rose, Michael Harrington, Mary Nishimoto, Tony Luna, Paul Westmacott
Notes: Ava Schulenberg
Agenda:
Update on Fishery Issues for Ventura and Channel Islands - Dave Colker
Commercial Slip Policy Review 8/17 Harbor Commission Meeting
Lobster Fishery Update
Summerland Beach Lobster Trap Cleanup Recap
Seasketch Mapping Project Progress
Update on SBCC Project
Other
Chris Voss starts the meeting at 4:05PM upstairs in the harbor classroom.
Agenda:
Update on Fishery Issues for Ventura and Channel Islands - Dave Colker
Dave thanks CFSB for the opportunity to speak and share the Ventura County Commercial Fishermen Association (VCCFA) side of things. In the past 2 years he’s been revitalizing the group from 0 to 40 members now and is still growing. They're starting to gain some ground and ask agencies/governmental groups for infrastructure that’s needed. In Channel Islands harbor their infrastructure is particularly lacking. He would like to connect VCCFA with CFSB more because there is so much overlap in issues we face and grounds that we fish. He is the president of the association and works with not only Ventura Harbor but also Channel Islands and Port Hueneme. He is asking CFSB for some staff time/help as he is getting closer to speaking with county officials and other regulatory agencies so that they can get some of the things they need like ice machine, storage, etc. What’s different between down there and up here is they have some undeveloped land and we’re in a situation where every square inch is spoken for in SB. He wants to be able to speak their language - emphasizing economic impact so they can actually show how beneficial the industry is to the public and how much money they bring into the community.
Dave spoke with Kim about a year ago and thinks if we had an economic impact analysis that covered more than just Ventura county, we might be able to benefit all of us by getting a collective group together to produce a robust report and establish more of a connection with our two fishing associations.
Kim says she remembers talking with Dave and asks about their rep with the coastal conservancy’s update on their efforts - Dave says he hasn’t heard back from him in a while, his name is Sam and the county owns the harbor which is why they're so much more involved because they’re like landlords. Dave says Sam said they are eligible for funds as a 501c3 organization but it’s been slower to progress without the economic impact report that Dave wants to produce. Dave says he and Sam drove around the harbors and saw how dilapidated the infrastructure is like the hoists, etc.
Ray asks if he has a gross seafood revenue figure that he can showcase for those 3 harbors because for SB, that has attracted the attention of our city council because we create so many jobs and it shows how much we’re worth in a sense and thinks that would be a great first step for Dave. Dave says he agrees and thinks he can maybe get this info without having to do the entire economic impact report.
Kim says in November of last year she reached out to Dave and other ports like San Luis, etc. to do a scaled up economic impact analysis and everyone was interested so we went to firms to get a bid and it ended up seeming like too expensive for not enough gain - they just wanted to give us a single number which is an economic multiplier, but this number can be taken from existing impact reports such as Ventura Shellfish Enterprise’s report.We have to find a middle ground between spending lots of money and time doing something very tailored vs doing something too general. Ideally we also loop in the processors and the fish buyers and it becomes overwhelming and costly.
Gary says what about the Santa Barbara Economic Impact report book CFSB put out in 2014 - Kim says this is different because it focuses on revenue generated from the fish and not the economic impact of the fishermen.
Kim says we still have $27k in our USDA grant fund which we can use for this kind of economic impact report. Kim asks if Derek Stein would do something like that? Dave says he’s had Derek give him reports in the past on urchin landings etc. and he can reach out to him and at least point us in the right direction. Chris says he knows Derek pretty well and says he’s a good guy and thinks he might be willing to work on our behalf.
Commercial Slip Policy Review 8/17 Harbor Commission Meeting
The Waterfront Dept occasionally puts items on the agenda regarding pre-existing policies. The policies and resolutions reviewed at the August meeting dealt only with the management and requirements of “designated commercial fishing slips” not an analysis that could lead to an increase in the number of “designated commercial fishing slips”, as CFSB, the Commercial Fisheries Workgroup and the Harbor Commission unanimously recommended. As a consequence the Commission had zero questions because it was a high level overview that many were all already aware of. Commissioner Nelson asked about when they will begin to do the analysis that the commission recommended and Director Wiltshire said that this overview was in fact the beginning of the analysis.
Chris gave a public comment emphasizing how some fisheries are opening up and the fact that there are more fishermen coming into the industry and there is a need to open up more commercial slips. Commissioner Merit McCrea asked Chris about commercial slips used by inactive fishermen and he responded that very few are used by inactive fishermen.
Ray says he went to office hours with Director Wiltshire to ask how he can help and brought up the idea of the visitor slips on A finger and says it was clear that the Waterfront Department had done nothing since the commission made their ask for the slip analysis earlier this year in the spring. Even if you get a few of the deadweight boats out, we still need to free up more slips because that won’t resolve all issues. Ray wonders why there were no slips held in reserve for commercial use for the future. Ray says maybe there is reason to speculate that because the abalone fishery was closing around that time, there was no support to think that there would be a bigger demand for more commercial slips. Ray thinks they made an arbitrary decision that might not even be a legal one to defy that harbor master plan, whether we want to go down that road or not. He says all in all it was a good meeting but did not really go anywhere and it was apparent that they have not started on this project. Mike Nelson says we will have to keep pushing, pushing, pushing.
Chris says that during the meeting they also presented a financial report showing that the harbor district has rebounded phenomenally. Ray notes that they’ve increased revenue by 30% just from parking alone.
Gary asks Mike Nelson about the raise in ice prices and Mike says the commission approved the Waterfront’s new budget across the board, including this. Mike says we can easily review this on an annual basis because Gary says ice going up from 6 to 10 cents plus electricity and other overhead costs are hard when the price of fish hasn’t gone up in 20 years. It was noted that the biggest consumer of ice is a commercial tenant in the harbor, not fishermen.
Lobster Fishery Update
Ray says he’s been in close contact with Roger Healey and let him know that we won’t be providing samples and says he will encourage the same thing down the coast. He says the Department will do a mailing and email for us so we are now working on getting a letterhead for California Lobster and Trap Fisheries Association (CLTFA) for that. Ray also acquired a P.O. box for the organization today.
Ray says the department has no authorization to close a fishery due to a lack of samples but they do have the right to take their own samples from some areas - He says we are not necessarily in as bad of a position that we thought we were going to be in in terms of being guilty until proven innocent.
Chris says Nick Voss reported that a man named Sam Dover who is a marine mammal worker verified that domoic acid is no longer an issue in the Channel, and it's over and done with for now. Also domoic acid clears really quickly from animals. They can excrete it during the holding period in tanks prior to shipment or sale. Humans also pass domoic acid very quickly if it is in fact in their system which dramatically lowers the potential for effects to human health.
Ray says Matt Arf made contact with one of his Dungeness friends up north and said they do some pre-season testing up there to determine the meat content but it’s a much more expansive market than CA Spiny Lobster or our Rock Crab down here.
At our last lobster meeting we talked about the possibility of retaining a lawyer and Nick Voss said he would connect with Rusty Brace and he has, but Chris has also been in contact with Mike Conroy and brings up a letter that he wrote about 7 years ago when domoic acid was an issue then. The recommendations that Conroy suggested in this letter still stand so we may reach out to him to write another letter at this point and emphasize the points around purging processes.
Ray says Mike Conroy is already up to speed on this subject so if we try to get another attorney that is not already aware, it will cost us more so it might be in our best interest to hire Conroy who is privy to the situation as it stands.
Ray says CLFTA will take on this issue because there are so many other members of CFSB who are not lobster fishermen. He asks that we take a vote for the creation of a lobster defense fund, perhaps run entirely by CLFTA.
At our last lobster specific meeting last month there was a consensus that we hire a lawyer and work to defend this issue as a group.
Ray makes a motion that CFSB asks our lobster permit holders to make a voluntary contribution of a minimum of $500 to protect the lobster fishery from domoic acid/other closures. The funds and records of who contributed what will be held separately by CFSB until CLTFA has an account to use. Those contributions will go toward the first year dues for CLTFA. Kim says a separate bank account would be a bit of work, but tracking it in Quickbooks is easy so a separate account may be unnecessary.
Gary asks why CLTFA not up and running yet - Ray says it’s been trying to get going again for years and Chris says that leadership quit and there was a big split and it was hard to get people on board and that’s why Ray said he’s been talking with Roger Healy trying to breathe life into it. Ray has been having trouble getting the email addresses of lobster permittees with CDFW because this is private information that they won’t release so it’s difficult to get other lobster permit holders without their contact information.
We will start building a contact list from what we have from CFSB too.
Ray makes the motion for CFSB to receive and record $500 checks from lobster fishermen to fund a legal defense initiation as soon as CLTFA is up and running. Chris seconds the motion, unanimous approval 5-0-0, vote stands.
Summerland Beach Lobster Trap Cleanup Recap
We were disappointed that there were no volunteers to help us. We gave a month’s notice and expected at least 1 lobster fisherman to help. We don’t expect folks that recently helped to help again because this effort should be shared amongst the lobster fleet. Next time we do a cleanup, we expect more of a presence from active lobster permit holders because it’s important to show our community that we clean our gear. To clarify, CFSB staff do not get paid to do these cleanups; This is entirely a volunteer effort.
SeaSketch Mapping Project Progress
We’ve been working with a consultant named Maddie from SeaSketch to create a mapping survey and Ava has completed 7 surveys so far with positive feedback. It is entirely confidential and the end result will be a heat map of aggregated data.
Fishermen should be encouraged to participate in this because if they don’t input areas that are important to them, it’s basically saying that it’s OK to put something else there (i.e. aquaculture, offshore wind, other sources of spatial loss in the future).
Other ports along the coast have done this same project to define our valuable zones in order to protect ourselves from more spatial loss. OPC has funded this in other parts of the state so it’s recognized as a legitimate source by agencies/NOAA etc.
Eliza from Ocean Rainforest says we are on track to get the $25K we requested from the feds to cover our costs of producing this heat map. The money is coming via a third party that we will invoice because for the gov’t to set us up as our own vetted contractor would be too inefficient and expensive. Kim has been in touch with the third party to get the invoicing system in place. Eliza says they are a good group to work with.
We are wanting to capture the information from Ventura county fishermen in addition to CFSB’s members but participation is key so we are asking Dave to advocate on our behalf regarding this project to get guys from down there on board so Ava can survey them so we have good representation from down south. Dave asks how soon are we looking to get this data? Kim says in the next 6 months. Dave says we should sit in on one of their meetings (they meet the first Sunday of each month at 6PM), and explain the project accurately so we can connect directly with some of the fishermen down there and garner interest. Dave emphasizes that we want to work symbiotically and we’re more than welcome to sit in on any VCCFA meeting and use their email list.
Ray says he just did the survey before the meeting and it’s pretty benign and it’s just drawing shapes etc.
Kim says to Jaime Diamond that we could include the passenger vessels and she says she’ll have us talk to Jason.
Update on SBCC Project
Kim says in order to partner with us on the Maritime Collective, SBCC must make sure that the industries served in the Maritime Collective are growing/robust and provide good jobs. Gary asks why it has to be a growing industry? Kim says it’s a state run institution and a collaborative project like this has to be something that will produce more jobs to show it will be a benefit to their students who interact with it, and that there’s no dead end career path for students who spend their time doing training. So it's important that the scope includes other maritime jobs like sea-level rise adaptation, aquaculture, etc. beyond commercial fishing alone to make our case a bit stronger.
Kim says SBCC may contract with Peter Rupert to develop a job market analysis to support this partnership. We could integrate in our economic impact report and strategy that we’ve been planning to do - He did some of the Plains Oil settlement analyses and is a trusted local economist.
Kim put in a pre-proposal to the Coastal Conservancy to fund the boat yard part of the project at SBCC - This step is non-binding; it tees you up to put in a real proposal so we’ll hear soon if we passed the test and can submit a real proposal.
Kim also put in a pre-proposal to NOAA’s Saltonstall Kennedy grant program, which is $500k to fund some of the Maritime Collective components that don’t require a physical space to get off the ground - e.g., services we’re creating and the legal entity and board we’re creating. So we’ll see if we get a green light to submit a real proposal by October.
Gary says Dave needs to do this so they can get some money for their infrastructure. Kim asks what grants Sarah Schoffler recommended for him? He says he does not know off the top of his head but he will share with Kim within the week. Mike Nelson says it was likely the EDA money. Dave says it was mostly suggestions of how to get their feet on the ground.
We’ll provide another update on SBCC progress next month.
Other:
Paul Westmacott
Paul updates us saying that he’s working on a fishing film and is still looking to do a couple more interviews for his feature documentary called Plight of the Fishermen and the history is that it started a long time ago (McCorkle is in there, etc.)
Gary says a lot of the topics that were brought up in this film even from 10-15 years ago are still relevant; Paul agrees and says it’s timeless and works for the story but is sad for the fishermen
Chris Voss ends the meeting at 5:34PM.