CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - May 1, 2023

Attendees: Chris Voss, Kim Selkoe, Mike Nelson, Shane Robinson, Adrian Stimpson, Claire Gonzalez, Garrett Rose, Mark Brubaker, Tony Luna, Andy Rasmussen, Greg Olsen, Nick Tharp, Tony Shiao, Ray Kennedy, Michael Harrington, Mary Nishimoto, John Colgate, Matt Liso, Henry Hepp, Harry Liquornik

Notes: Ava Schulenberg

Agenda:

  • Board Elections

    • Chris Voss

    • Paul Teall

    • Harry Liquornik

    • Gary Burke

    • Nick Tharp

    • Ray Kennedy

    • Garrett Rose

    • Alternates:

      • John Colgate

      • Ben Hyman?

  • CLTFA - Update from Ray Kennedy 

  • MRC Meetings Recap 

  • CA Energy Commission Report From Chris Voss

  • Trap Cleanup Recap

    • ~30 traps recovered from beaches

    • Thank you to Nick Tharp and Henry Hepp for volunteering to help

  • Buoyless Gear Report from Greg Olsen, Matt Liso, Nick Tharp

  • Commercial Fishing Subcommittee Update on Slips

  • Slip Survey Idea

  • Other:

    • Richie Toledo Memorial 

      • May 13th 11:30AM

    • Comments/Feedback About Ocean Rainforest’s Installation?

Chris Voss opened the meeting on May 1, 2023 at 4:05pm. Meeting was held in person in the harbor classroom and via Zoom.

Agenda:

  • Board Elections

    • These are the people interested in a board position:

      • Chris Voss

      • Paul Teall

      • Harry Liquornik

      • Gary Burke

      • Nick Tharp

      • Ray Kennedy

      • Garrett Rose

      • Alternates: Ideally someone in the same fishery would be an alternate for a board member in the same industry

        • John Colgate will be Garrett Rose’s alternate

        • Tony Luna will be Ray Kennedy’s alternate

        • Joe Garrigan will be Nick Tharp’s alternate

    • Mark Brubaker asks how many more voters there are or is it just who is in the room?

      • Chris says because there are 7 guys pursuing 7 seats, there’s no vote, but if there’s 8, then there would be a vote

    • Chris says you can’t vote against anybody

    • John Colgate has stepped down so a younger fisherman can join 

    • Bernard Friedman is not running again

    • Andy says our current federal government is causing our problems and believes CFSB’s current leadership is in support of that

      • Shane also feels that those in charge of CFSB are in support of the government’s opposition of fisheries

      • Andy says that Chris supports the $8/gallon diesel efforts 

      • Mark says if you pick hot-button topics like offshore wind, buoyless gear, etc. how much power does this group have to impact that? Kim answers we are focused on these issues whole-heartedly and work on them every week

      • John says if you feel so passionately about these issues why would you not join the board? If you want these opinions voiced you can’t just complain you need to get on there

      • Andy supports every other person on the board except Chris Voss

    • All CFSB members can vote for who the board is and within the board, those members vote for who should take each position within the board (president, VP, treasurer, etc.)

    • Kim emphasizes that to be president, you need to engage with staff every week so it is a commitment and a lot of people don’t realize that. Also,  that the staff take direction from the whole board, not just the president. You don’t need to be President to influence the activities of CFSB.

      • Chris emphasizes he spends a huge amount of time at meetings and doing work for CFSB, all of which is unpaid, so it is a big commitment and you need to be engaged 

    • Tony says he talks to people often who bash CFSB but he says that in our defense, there’s no one else who has the time to do these things and go to meetings, etc. and if you don’t like it then show up at meetings! 

    • Kim points out how great it is to have different opinions in a room and on a board

    • Shane emphasizes how hard it is to have leaders of CFSB who voted for Biden and feels that we are pro-anti-fishing issues like offshore wind. Chris responds that we are vehemently against off-shore wind and go to countless meetings to voice the best interests of fishermen.

    • Wrapping up: We note in the minutes that all 7 members ran unopposed so there is no need for a formal vote. 

    • A vote within the board for the executive positions will be made later.  

  • CLTFA - Update from Ray Kennedy 

    • Ray has been working with Roger Healey to revive the California Lobster/Trap Fishery Association because it has been a bit dormant in recent years

    • Ava is working on a proper mailing list just to see what the level of interest is and see where we can go from there

    • If the CLFTA community is strengthened, we could better fight against issues like 30x30, buoyless gear, and other opposing forces

      • Ray says Roger is willing to advise us on how the association can combat these issues

    • Mark asks where the pressure is coming from on lost lobster gear. Ray says it’s mostly environmental groups like Heal the Ocean and other NGOs 

      • This is a tricky situation because the further out we move, the bigger issue whale entanglement becomes. Greg agrees this is a 1-2 punch

  • MRC Meetings Recap 

    • Chris and Ava went to Monterey mid-March for 4 days for the MPA decadal review and MRC meetings. Ava sent notes out, please review them 

  • CA Energy Commission Report From Chris Voss

    • 5 leases for offshore wind have been administered - 2 off Humboldt 3 off of Morro Bay, that’s over 600 sq miles of ocean, but the objective is almost 10x that

    • Any fisherman that feels they won’t be impacted by offshore wind is naive - There will be massive cables and shoreside impacts, maintenance, installation, it will all be outrageous

    • The only agency that has stood up on our behalf is the Coastal Commission because they protect our interests against ocean industrialization

    • Shane says this is all our federal administration’s fault - Mark says we need to re-elect Trump and give him our wishlist

    • Shane says why don’t they just do it on land? Tony and everyone agrees, throw them in Mojave!

  • Trap Cleanup Recap

    • ~30 traps recovered from beaches

    • Thank you to Nick Tharp and Henry Hepp for volunteering to help

    • Chris recaps the recent storm events that brought a lot of gear onto the beach

    • We did a cleanup with SB Channelkeeper on 4/22 and have communicated with other non-profit groups like Heal the Ocean and Ocean Defenders Alliance to assist with their future cleanups as well 

    • Adrian says there have been funds in the past that paid for cleanup efforts at the islands. Chris says that the National Marine Sanctuary has just received a large grant to fund more clean ups at the islands. They compensate fishermen fairly for their participation in these clean ups, so it's worth looking into getting involved. Mark suggests we get jet skis with sleds and clean everything easily like that, or Matt suggests getting John Deere gators on the beach too. Jet skis aren’t allowed in the Sanctuary, so that would require a special permit. Nick suggests a small zodiac might be a easier pathway to get approved)

    • Ray emphasizes being proactive about this is key and revitalizing groups like CLFTA will help with this

    • Tony emphasizes that people need to take responsibility for their gear. Most guys do, but newer guys might’ve had a harder time

  • Buoyless Gear Report from Greg Olsen, Matt Liso, Nick Tharp

    • Greg says there’s not a vertical line fisherman anywhere that wants this. The number of box crab vertical lines is .01% of the total vertical line industry, but it doesn’t matter because the State doesn’t want any more vertical lines period, so the only way to continue the EFP for Box Crab is going to be if they propose using ropeless gear.

    • The whole issue is with whale entanglement. The people that are defining the playing field are NMFS, NOAA, and the way that vertical line fisheries are being punished is due in part to the power of the environmental NGOs who have had a powerful influence on who makes the decisions.

    • The issue for pop-up gear with box crab and with any fishery, is does it actually work? Greg, Nick, and Matt went to North Carolina to see if it worked -

      • They were disappointed that the gear actually did work, although the testing was in shallower water. This gear would not shut down the Dungeness fishery - It would not work for the d-crab fishery. The east coast lobster fishery has been shut down 90% by regulators - They’re scared of downline entanglement. 

      • There were 3 different prototypes. Two didn’t work. One of those costs $12k each that operates on a dive tank, which only lasts 2-3 months so that needs to be replaced on top of the $12k price tag.

      • Nick says Dan Major in San Diego tested the gear a handful of times at 500ft

      • Nick says the guy who showed them the equipment in NC has been using the gear for nearly a decade and he says it works. Chris asks how much it costs? Nick says $300 for the time $350 for the acoustic release

      • Gary asks about trawling without knowing where the buoys are? Nick says there is software that is available (not mandated) to use that shows everyone where everyone’s strings are 

    • Shane says we should all just keep fishing until this becomes mandatory and they’ve bettered the technology - Ray says to Greg’s point though, if we want to play we’re going to have to play by their rules. Tony responds by saying that we just need to be proactive.

    • Greg looks to Shane to say he agrees with their line of thinking but even with being on the same political side, there’s only so much power that that holds

    • Garrett asks if the permit Greg had for box crab was an EFP, Greg says yes. Garrett says it’s hard to test gear types when you don’t even have a permit. Shane says it could end up impacting everyone else if box crab fishermen say “oh this gear works great.” 

    • Greg emphasizes the fact that the guys that are making this gear, aren’t fishermen, and they don’t know how to fish traps. Testing by fishermen is key to making this gear type feasible.

    • Greg says we either anticipate change, even though we don’t want things to change, or we let the hammer drop on us and act in a reactive way

    • Shane asks whether Greg, Nick and Matt are going to go forward with proposing buoyless gear in their Box crab EFP? Nick says none of them are fully on board with this at all 

    • Garrett asks about the types of traps? Nick says they were 24x24x28 blackcod traps

    • Shane says he knows a fisherman in Florida who uses a grappling hook to get all his traps, no vertical lines

    • Greg emphasizes that this is a supreme shit show

  • Commercial Fishing Subcommittee Update on Slips

    • The new budget proposal brings the cost down from $400 to $350 per foot for the transfer fees

    • We will be present at the next Harbor Commission meeting on the third Thursday of this month at 6:30PM to address the issue of more commercial slips being needed (5/18 upstairs at City Hall downtown). 

    • Garrett says if you can get a commercial rate without having to buy a slip why would you buy a slip? 

    • Shane says there are 2 guest slips on his finger that should be an easy start

    • Shane asks if we’re going for a percentage of slips or a number? Mike Nelson said neither, we are simply starting a conversation about the issue and how the city council has requested more support for the commercial fleet. It's their job to come up with a solution. 

  • Slip Survey Idea

    • Kim brings up the topic of slips and how there is a lack of consistency across the fleet in terms of preferences and how we’ve discussed this with Wiltshire and the idea of conducting a survey was brought up. There are reasons to decline this opportunity, but there are also reasons to move forward so that we can get a consensus on what people’s opinions truly are

    • Chris emphasizes this is entirely in our control and the goal is to get us to be able to support a change collectively

    • Mark says the transfer fee issue needs to be on here, but Chris points out we will address it separately.

    • Nick has a problem with the $15,000 requirement in particular for groundfish guys because fishermen will go out on a couple trips and flood the market periodically just to fill their commercial fishing quota, but it screws up markets for the guys who actually fish regularly

    • We did not reach a consensus on this survey - Ava will circle back either via email or in our next board meeting

  • Other:

    • Richie Toledo Memorial

      • May 13th 11:30AM

        • Boats go out at 11:30AM, BBQ at Leadbetter after at 12:30PM

    • Comments/Feedback About Ocean Rainforest’s Installation?

      • We did not get to this item, we ran out of time. We will discuss it at the next board meeting. 

Kim Selkoe ended the meeting at 6:00pm.