MBNMS SAC Meeting Minutes February 6th, 2004

Jane DeLay introduced the new Save our Shores Marine Policy Education Coordinator, Beth Dieveney. Jane also announced that Camp SEALAB Monterey Bay will be having a workshop the following day at the Pacific Grove Natural History Museum for ages 8-13.

As the past MERITO Program Director, Karen Grimmer, MBNMS Program Operations Coordinator, introduced Michelle Templeton, the new MERITO Program Director, and gave a brief history of the MERITO program. She commented on the expansion of the MERITO program in the Salinas Valley.

Michelle highlighted MERITO’s successes over the past year. She announced that the program was waiting for state funding for two more bilingual outreach specialists, of which one will be a liaison for the Salinas Valley. Staff is looking to expand the program also to the Channel Islands NMS.

Michele Roest, Education and Outreach Specialist, provided highlights from the Wildlife Viewing Workshop held the night before. There were a total of 60 attendees at the workshop.

Bill asked the Advisory Council if they had any insights or thoughts on what the National Marine Sanctuary Program (NMSP) could do to improve the Watchable Wildlife Handbook and concept. Many Advisory Council members gave comments, such as: create a video to show to large groups in gathering areas i.e. visitor centers, kiosks, cruise ships, etc., create a commercial that can be shown on public info channels in hotels, a training program for boat operators which results in the Sanctuary’s endorsement to draw more customers to their business, telescopes at trail side spots, signage at harbors, expand TeamOcean.

The Advisory Council decided to review the Annual Report for the next meeting because it was handed to them at the meeting.

Stephanie Harlan, Advisory Council Chair, gave a summary of what occurred at the last AMBAG meeting. She commented that she had invited the AMBAG board members to the Advisory Council meetings to obtain more of a working knowledge of how the Advisory Council works. She also gave a brief history as to how this issue got started.

Bill added that it seems there are three issues that are of most concern:

• The ability to write Congress without sanctuary management concurrence
• The process for selection of council members
• Each member should fill out financial disclosure statements to see if anyone is influenced by outside groups

It was commented that AMBAG needs to make themselves more accessible. Materials for meetings are not posted online and it is hard to find when meetings are. They need to keep the Advisory Council posted as to what is going on.

Many Advisory Council members were unclear how the Advisory Council became an issue of AMBAG’s and what the outcome of it would be.

FY 04 Budget

Bill gave a brief update on the FY 04 budget. He described the continuing resolution process that the NMSP had to go through. NMSP will get an increase in this year’s budget of approximately $15 million. Last year’s recision took $282,000 from Monterey Bay for the visitor center which the NMSP headquarters have said they will restore. With this year’s budget there is little new money for construction funds. A new boat, probably a 65 foot research vessel, will be built for the Monterey Bay NMS to operate and share with Gulf of the Farallones NMS and Cordell Bank NMS. There is unfortunately no new news on getting any more FTE positions. Advice given by Advisory Council members on ways to spend the extra money included: develop a volunteer program and hire a volunteer coordinator and possibly use the money to address the research priorities identified in the Management Plan. Bill commented there are discussions of a big investment in monitoring on the west coast and possibly using SIMoN as a model for that.

LT Meeting

Bill provided an update on what the events at the January Leadership Team meeting in Long Beach and Santa Barbara. Staff at the Aquarium of the Pacific stated a great interest in developing exhibitory that focuses on all the sanctuaries of the pacific in particular the California sites. The creation of regional structures within the sanctuaries is taking place as part of the process to make NMSP parallel to the National Ocean Service. There will be four regions-North East/Great Lakes, South Atlantic/Gulf Coast, West Coast and Pacific Islands. There was a panel discussion with the National Marine Fisheries Service. There were also discussions on facilities planning and Sanctuary Advisory Councils.

Priorities in FY 04

Bill expressed to the Advisory Council that the top priority in fiscal year 2004 is to get the management plan done and off to NMSP headquarters. Other priorities include facilities, signage, interpretive center and increased ship time.

Joint Boundary Between MBNMS and GFNMS

Bill announced the decision on the joint boundary between the Gulf of the Farallones NMS and the Monterey Bay NMS had been made by Dan Basta and was going through clearance at NOS. He alerted the Advisory Council to a possible meeting on March 3rd with Dan Basta and the Gulf of the Farallones NMS to discuss and answer questions regarding the final decision.

Bill announced that NMSP headquarters had required that the MBNMS staff not give a presentation on the DOD exemption from the MMPA and ESA because it is not a law for the NMSP to interpret. Staff tried to get someone from the National Marine Fisheries Service to give the presentation, but were unsuccessful in finding someone in this area knowledgeable of the law. He pointed out that there were copies of the law on the table in front of them and apologized for not being able to provide them with more information at this time.

After some discussion, it was suggested the Advisory Council write a letter to Vice Admiral Lautenbacher with a copy to Dan Basta which Stephanie will hand deliver at the Advisory Council Chairs/Coordinators meeting.

MOTION: (Passed)
Send a letter to Vice Admiral Lautenbacher asking for a presentation on the topic of the recent DOD exemption from NMFS, or the NMSP.

Motion introduced by Deborah Streeter, seconded by Kaitilin Gaffney
(Vote: 11 in favor, 0 opposed (unanimous))

Deborah Streeter, At-Large primary and Chair of membership subcommittee, gave an update on the last subcommittee meeting. She thanked the Advisory Council members for submitting their questionnaires, but there was some key questionnaires missing. The subcommittee will be meeting one more time and will bring their recommendation to the Advisory Council at the following meeting. Howard Egan, Fishing alternate, and Brian Foss, Harbors primary, have been invited to join the subcommittee.

It was commented that one of the seats for possible consolidation, should the SAC recommend adding a recreational fishing seat, was the Business seat. The question of not selecting a business representative until the subcommittee gave its recommendation was raised. It is possible that the subcommittee could recommend dropping the Business seat especially if the interest in filling the seat is low, as it was this past recruitment. Bill commented that he was comfortable not having the Business seat at the table for the April 2nd Advisory Council meeting and the MBNMS staff could work out whatever was needed by the June meeting. Bill stated that he needed the advice from the Advisory Council on whether MBNMS staff should hold the Business seat open and not appoint someone or fill the seat with this current recruitment.

Action:
The Advisory Council recommended, by consensus, that the MBNMS staff should not fill the business seat before the April 2, 2004 Advisory Council meeting.

Stephanie Harlan, Chair, announced that Congressman Sam Farr acquired $400,000 for the Sanctuary Scenic Trail, which will be split evenly between the City of Santa Cruz and the City of Monterey. Stephanie read a newspaper article regarding a lawsuit by the Pacific Legal Foundation to remove the Snowy Plover from the Endangered Species list based on junk science. She also announced the Urban Water Institute Summit Conference, “The Clean Water Act: Can We Do Better?”on March 18-19.

Chris Harrold, Director of Conservation & Research at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, announced the Aquarium was looking for an Executive Director for their new Center for the Future of the Oceans. In addition, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the University of California Santa Barbara along with the University of California Santa Cruz are working toward a joint mammal and ocean conservation center. The new sharks exhibit, titled Sharks: Myth and Mystery, opens April 2, 2004 at the Aquarium.

Paul Reilly announced that CA Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Mike Chrisman as the new Secretary for the CA Resources Agency and Ryan Broddrick as the new Director for the CA Department of Fish and Game.

Mike Laffen, At-Large primary, announced the Mavericks surf competition will be paddle in surfing this year. Motorized Personal Watercraft will only be there as a function of safety.

Kaitilin Gaffney, Conservation primary, asked everyone to mark their calendars for Snapshot Day on May 1st.

Brian Foss, Harbors primary, thanked the MBNMS staff for the working with the Santa Cruz Harbor on dredging permits. He indicated that the harbor now had what they needed.

Nicole Capps, Advisory Council Coordinator, asked if the same members that made up the last recruitment subcommittee could meet again for the current recruitment selection. The same members agreed to review the current applications at the appropriate time