CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - February 24th, 2026 4PM
Attendees: Kaira Wallace, Chris Voss, Kim Selkoe, Doug Bush, Dan O’Shea, Jonathan Woodcock, Bernard Friedman, Gary Burke, Jeff Maassen, Manny Gorgita, Harry Liquornik, John Hoadley, Ray Kennedy, Shaun Roche, Dave Colker, Jason Woods, Ben Hyman, Michael Harrington, Jeff Hepp, Mike Zertuche, Jeff Buchanan
Notes: Ava Schulenberg
Agenda:
*Housekeeping, time limits, 3 minute maximum policy on individual comments
RODA
Ocean Rainforest - Kaira Wallace
Coastal Conservancy Grant - Vote
Ocean Collective update
Purple urchin removal/kelp restoration project update
Kim will do a 10 min presentation on the project so far
2025/EOY newsletter
Annual financials - Vote
Board Elections
Ray’s VP seat replacement
Marine Resources Committee Meeting 3/12 8:30AM
MPA Bioregional Meetings
4/21 Half Moon Bay
5/5 - 5/6 Santa Barbara
5/19 Oceanside
MPA Collaborative April meeting
Seasketch
Offshore Wind
Meeting with Janet Fogarty Recap
Fishing Communities Coalition
Boston Seafood Show meeting
Annual membership renewals
SBMM
TVSB?
Ocean film screening event this Thursday at the SBMM
Harbor dredging
Last remaining cycle, should start in March
Safety gear reimbursement
Cable Committee new grant app
Sea urchin market - Jeff Maassen
2026 Dues
Please don’t forget to sign up to avoid membership interruption in the new year 🙂
Recording: Link
Chris calls the meeting to order at 4:04PM upstairs in the harbor classroom.
Agenda:
RODA membership
Harry makes a motion to approve CFSB receiving $2,000 from the South Bay Cable Committee to pay for RODA membership; Jason seconds, unanimous approval 6-0-0 vote stands
Ocean Rainforest - Kaira Wallace
Kaira gives an overview of their demonstration project. You can view her presentation slides here
Funding came from federal funds, ARPA-E Research Grant, non-commercial
Because it was non-commercial and research focused, they were primary experimenting with different sporing methods and the verdict was mixed results
They learned that the horizontal method was superior and shallower/more light worked best
Gary says as a bottom trawler he wants to know if he loses his net, is OR responsible? Also the shell mounds?
Kaira said the Coastal Commission wouldn’t allow removals of mounds but they didn’t see big mounds in their surveys
She says they had a lost gear recovery program that has funds that would help cover costs of gear loss or damages by their equipment that ideally the money would go back to them after the project is over, so these lingering pieces put them in unknown territory right now
Gary says the blocks and chain will sink but the eye/top of them will snag horribly
Doug says the chain goes straight into the casting so there’s no eye
John says probably what made the rope snap is because it was embedded? Doug says because it was a straight vertical neck line, the repeated stress of 2.5 years of that they probably under-modeled that and broke because of chafing
John says if it never came out but there was an accurate position of where it was dropped, it should be jettable, but if it fell then not sure
Shaun says a commercial dive outfit could probably find them
Kaira says it’s hard to do that without exposed pieces
Shaun says a diver can jet it out and bring it up
Kaira has concerns over how much is it worth to get the blocks if they are fully covered versus leaving the benthos as is; she has concerns about Coastal Commission wanting them to not damage the bottom
Harry asks Manny about him dragging there
Manny says the bottom changes all the time and you can get through certain areas at certain times of the year versus others
Manny says you left them there, you should get them out?
Manny says if he breaks a $10,000 net because of the block, are they responsible? Doug says he can’t guarantee that but they are trying to get the blocks out best they can
Gary asks how many buoys were there?
Kaira says 22 perimeter buoys that were attached to the site, 16 acres total (of 86 permitted)
Doug says there will be substantially more buoys in Ventura
Gary asks if it’s in federal waters?
Kaira says yes
Manny asks why not state waters?
Kaira says permitting issues and conflict of use closer to shore is greater in state waters
Manny asks if the company is foreign? Doug says the founder and foundation is Faroese but the current Ocean Rainforest, Inc. is a US company
Manny asks why not put these in MPAs?
Doug says they’ve gone through an exhaustive process to decide what spot has been made the “best fit”
Manny says there are people in this room that are impacted that haven’t been reached out to
Manny asks again what will happen if the block breaks a $10K net - Doug says he will not make a promise that OR will pay for that and says they are trying to not be a part of those who leave behind things in the ocean
Chris says he understands Manny’s opinion and urges him to see that they’re trying their best to get everything out as soon as possible
Shaun says if they’re serious about getting them out a commercial dive operation would be $6-8K and he’d be surprised if the work took more than a couple days; Shaun says he’d be surprised if they weren’t sunk right on the GPS spots.
Doug says the mud is gelatinous and weird in that area so regarding jetting, they’re trying to walk a thin line with the Coastal Commission and the concept of damaging the sea floor versus their values on getting stuff out
Kaira welcomes people reaching out to her and here is her contact information: +1 650 455 4558 [email protected]
Coastal Conservancy Grant - Vote
Ocean Collective update
Coastal Conservancy has awarded CFSB $507,000 to complete the permitting process for the boat and gear storage yard at SBCC with our design firm, RRM, and cover outreach and staff time. Strategic Earth will do the tribal engagement. We also have an events budget.
To accept the award, we need to adopt a resolution with specific language in it that was provided by the Coastal Conservancy. This was emailed to the board.
Gary makes a motion to adopt the resolution, Jason seconds, 6-0-0 unanimous approval
Harry asks if this will keep us from being able to pursue a larger yard somewhere else if another parcel becomes available. Kim says that this grant would not be transferable to that process, but it doesn’t keep us from getting more funding. Probably this grant would be spent out before a new parcel comes up and we can organize a plan for it, if so we could then ask for more funds from Coastal Conservancy or another funder, if we can show them it's a critical need.
One comment that the trailered spaces are only 12 x 33’ and some boats are longer. Chris clarifies that some of the spaces can accommodate longer. Kim says that we can stripe the lot somewhat differently than the blueprint shows, the plans approvals focus on the footprint of the lot.
Purple urchin removal/kelp restoration project update
Kim will do a 10 min presentation on the project so far
You can view Kim’s slides here
We are a little over 1 year in to the 2 year project
The thinking with the location at Miguel is that it’s a difficult location so the thinking is if they can do it at Tyler Bight, they can (hopefully) do it anywhere
As of January, the results show that urchins did not march back in and the kelp expanded by 10x
John asks what is the target to get to to prove this; when are they going to be like this works and let’s go all in; John says it’s a joke, not the project, but the scale that’s allowed and the pace. He says they’ve got 200 divers in this state that are ready to go but what will it take for them to think it’s proven to work?
Kim and Chris say it’s a good question but Kim also says it’s sort of the wrong question. Everyone knows it works (regrowing kelp) but we have to demonstrate that we are a competent team, develop the workflows and determine the cost in this exact situation; it really boils down to a funding issue. We are awaiting news on more funding from the Ocean Protection Council to do 5 acres.
Harry says if there were endless funds they’d be doing it all the time
Woody asks about the carbon sequestration piece - Kim says there’s a non-profit called Sea Trees that would help CFSB do the fundraising and get corporate sponsors and foundations to buy a sq foot of restoration and they can get biodiversity credits (similar to carbon credits) for that
Kim says she has a meeting next week with them to explore if it’s a good fit;
Shaun says the oil companies have got so much money and it would be good press for them it seems like financially that would be a drop in the bucket. Kim says that’s a great idea and Ava has a meeting with Chevron next week so we will follow up more on this idea at the next meeting
Gary asks how much money is left right now to survey the area? Kim says 2 more surveys with science divers through September and then they have extra funds that she wants to use to do a good job of fundraising to scale up and carbon credit research, etc.
Gary asks this thinking through what it might look like down the line if the area needs help again. Harry says the unanswered question is do we want to go fix that area again in the future if needed or go elsewhere
2025/EOY newsletter - Ran out of time
Annual financials - Vote
Kim goes over the financials document that was sent to the board prior to the meeting
Gary asks about the $50K for “Education” - Kim says that was UCSB’s portion of the urchin project and Harrington just categorized it that way
Harry makes a motion to approve the financials, Jason seconds the motion, 6-0-0 unanimous approval
Board Elections
Ray’s VP seat replacement
Ava spoke with Tony Luna today and he gave his verbal agreement to take Ray’s board seat if everyone wants that; He expressed that he doesn’t have time to travel to Sacramento meetings right now
It is decided that Tony can/will when needed sit in for Ray at future meetings until the next election takes place in a month or two
The Board reminds everyone that the right thing to do is to send a notice out to all members for the next board-wide election so everyone has a chance to be on the board who wants to. Ava will do this before our next meeting
Marine Resources Committee Meeting 3/12 8:30AM
Gary says they will be talking about changing the size limit for the seabass fishery
If you go for 4-5inches more you’re going to kill a lot of fish there will be a lot of incidental mortality especially for sport guys
He says a better way to do it is better management
Gary also says for halibut reducing bycatch will likely be the same old scrutiny
Bernard says regarding aquaculture - It’s headed up by OPC to improve aquaculture but whether or not that’s going to prove anything is undetermined; You can public comment from April to May and then it will be published in June. Bernard says it’s been slow moving for 5 years and now it’s being railroaded quickly
MPA Bioregional Meetings
4/21 Half Moon Bay
5/5 - 5/6 Santa Barbara
5/19 Oceanside/Might be San Clemente TBD
Kim has been working hard on opposition letters and we’re all waiting any day now for CDFW to release their bin 2 recommendations and hopefully they won’t support the large no-take zones, but the commission can overrule them, which hopefully won’t happen
Kim says the 2 main issues are that there has been no use of science and no stakeholder engagement; holding a few meetings like this doesn't mean they’re checking boxes we need to hammer them on no science behind this and Harry also emphasizes no process whatsoever
They’re bound by the Coastal Fishing Communities Policy to do economic analyses so Kim’s newest letters (27 here, 29 here and 33 here) focus on the fact that there’s clear economic data showing the importance of those areas. (CFSB also submitted other letters of opposition to the process last fall and signed on to a CCA Coalition letter in January).
John asks if they’ve confirmed locations within each region? The answer is no and Chris says they might even try to move the SB regional meetings “north” but it’s unclear
MPA Collaborative meeting (separate from the Commission)
April 13th, just like the one at Hendrys from 2024
Seasketch - Kim says that we’ve included in our letters an image of the composite heatmap of the value of fishing grounds in the channel that we created with Seasketch in 2023/24. 53 fishermen participated from SB and Ventura. It shows how valuable the areas that are being considered as new MPAs are.
Offshore Wind
It will screw fishermen by taking grounds initially and it will also cost everyone in the state of CA a fortune for their electricity; Because of the uncertainty around engineering and maintenance there’s a good chance offshore wind in CA will be the most expensive electricity generated on the planet.
Meeting with Janet Fogarty Recap - Ran out of time
FCC
Boston Seafood Show meeting
Annual membership renewals
SBMM
TVSB
Harry makes a motion to do the same donation/membership for both as last year, Jason seconds 5-0-0 unanimous approval
Ocean film screening event this Thursday at the SBMM
Gary expresses concerns about the trawling shown in the bad light
Ava emphasizes this is why we’re having the event so we can control the narrative and debunk a lot of the claims made in the movie that are disparaging
Harry emphasizes that it doesn’t show any local dragging
Harbor dredging
Last remaining cycle, should start in March
Wiltshire says it’s currently 30 ft wide 12 ft deep at low or mean tide so hopefully we make it to the next cycle but there won’t be any funding after
Safety gear reimbursement
Cable Committee new grant app
Not reimbursement actually, this is an upfront purchase process led by the Cable Committee
This is a different process than the SB County funds for reimbursement which is a true reimbursement submission process
Sea urchin market - Jeff Maassen
Jeff says no updates yet but Steve Schiblaur might be interested
I mentioned I had a long talk with Derek Stein with DFW about transferability, the Russian import issue, and markets being limited by processors, some to 1000 lbs a week due to imported Russian uni issue
2026 Dues
Please don’t forget to sign up to avoid membership interruption in the new year 🙂
Other:
Salmon
Ben says there’s a meeting tomorrow and he is seeking a letter of support from CFSB
Kim asks Ben to email the request to CFSB
Chris ends the meeting at 6:05PM upstairs in the harbor classroom.