MBNMS SAC Meeting Minutes August 5th, 2005

MONTEREY BAY NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY
ADVISORY COUNCIL

FINAL
August 5, 2005
Cambria Pines Lodge
Cambria, CA

The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) Advisory Council met on Friday, August 5, 2005, in Cambria, California. Public categories and government agencies were present as indicated:

The following non-voting members were present as indicated:

• Channel Islands NMS: Chris Mobley - ABSENT
• Gulf of the Farallones NMS: Brian Johnson
• Cordell Bank NMS: Dan Howard - ABSENT
• Elkhorn Slough NERR: Becky Christensen - ABSENT
• Monterey Bay NMS: William Douros
• U.S. Coast Guard: LT Todd Moe - ABSENT

Alternates present in audience:

• Cindy Walter - At-Large
• Gary Pezzi - Recreation
• Michael Murray - Channel Islands NMS

I. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL, APPROVAL OF MINUTES

WELCOME

Richard Macido, legislative assistant for Supervisor Shirley Bianchi, welcomed the Advisory Council to Cambria. Nick Franco also welcomed the Advisory Council to Cambria and the southern region of the sanctuary.

SWEAR IN OF NEW MEMBERS

Bill Douros, Superintendent, swore in new members Tracey Weiss, Education primary, and Cynthia Walter, At-large alternate. Cynthia and Tracey both spoke about their backgrounds and interests in serving on the Advisory Council.

APPROVAL OF 6/3/05 DRAFT MEETING NOTES

MOTION: (Passed) The Advisory Council adopted the minutes from the June 3, 2005 Sanctuary Advisory Council meeting with the following changes:

• Page 8, section IX, para one, line one, change Capitola to Santa Cruz County.
  
• Page 3, Section II, para. 2, line 5: change "a state's" to "the state's".
  Line 7, add "voted" before "to declare".
  
• Page 5, Section IV, para 1, line 5: add "and" before "tinker".
  Para 2, line 6: change "groups" to "group's".
  Para 3, line 3: change "stuff" to "material".
  Section 5, para 1, line 2: add "the" before the second "volunteer".
  Limpets, para 1, line 7: change "On website" to "On the website,".
  Line 9: change "setup" to "set up".
  
• Page 6, last para line 1: change "monitors the Big Creek and works for the Big Creek Reserve" to "manages the University of California's Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve and the Big Creek State Marine Reserve."
  
• Page 8, Section VIII, para 1, line 3: change "Area's" to "Areas".
  Last para, line 1: add "an" before "awesome"
  Line 2: change "with boat groundings" to "responding to boat groundings".

Motion introduced by Russ Jeffries, seconded by Chris Harrold (Vote: 18 in favor, 0 opposed (unanimous))

II. DISCUSSION OF ADVISORY COUNCIL OFFICER TERMS

After some discussion, the Advisory Council requested that the sanctuary staff amend language in the MBNMS Advisory Council charter to reflect that the Vice Chair will now be a two-year term without an initial one-year term to start.

Motion introduced by Russ Jeffries, seconded by Chris Harrold (Vote: 18 in favor, 0 opposed (unanimous))

The Advisory Council elected Tom Canale to serve another term as Vice Chair.

Motion introduced by Russ Jeffries, seconded by Dave Vincent (Vote: 18 in favor, 0 opposed (unanimous))

III. PUBLIC COMMENT FOR ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA

During public comment, PJ Webb, At-large primary, announced there was recently a local issue that had arisen regarding the Bureau of Reclamation's plan to discharge agricultural drainage from the San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project into Estero Bay, thirteen miles south of the Sanctuary's southern boundary. Following this announcement were several comments from members of the public.

After some discussion, Deborah Streeter, Chair, asked PJ Webb, Chris Harrold and Steve Shimek to draft a letter, during lunch, to Claire Jacquemin, Bureau of Reclamation expressing the Advisory Council's concern regarding the Bureau's plan to discharge into Estero Bay.

After lunch, the draft letter was presented to the Advisory Council and after some discussion and modifications, the letter was adopted. Russ Jeffries, CA EPA primary, excluded himself from voting due to a conflict of interest. By consensus, the Advisory Council agreed to the context of the letter that will be sent to Ms. Jacquemin.

Bonnie Van Hise, District Scheduler for Congressman Farr's office, handed out a schedule for the 17th district town hall meetings. She also handed out a one-page summary of the Oceans 21 bill, which was reintroduced on June 16th. She commented that the House passed the NOAA appropriations bill with a half billion dollar cut from the FY05 funding level, but the Senate approved a half billion dollar increase. The bill still needs to go before the whole Senate. NOAA's FY05 budget was $4 billion.

Camille Kustin, a graduate student at the University of Michigan, announced that a group of graduate students were doing a systematic assessment of National Marine Sanctuary Program Advisory Councils and the Bureau of Land Management to discover the potential of Advisory Councils to advise and manage resources. She asked the Advisory Council if they had any questions or ideas of how to focus this study. A survey will be developed and the students will probably be conducting interviews. They hope this project will be used and not forgotten.

IV. JOINT DISCUSSION WITH CHANNEL ISLANDS NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY (CINMS) ADVISORY COUNCIL

Deborah welcomed members of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council and their staff to the meeting. In attendance were Dianne Meester, Chair, Linda Krop, Conservation primary, Greg Helms, Conservation alternate, and Walter Schobel, U.S. Department of Defense alternate.

Sean Morton, MBNMS Management Plan Coordinator, commented that this is an opportunity for both Advisory Councils to talk about how they accomplish things as Advisory Council members and to talk about their role of giving advice.

Overview of the MBNMS and CINMS Management Plan Process and Issues

Sean Morton and Michael Murray, CINMS Management Plan Coordinator, each provided overviews of the respective Management Plan processes and issues, in an effort to update both Advisory Councils as to where they are in their process.

CINMS/MBNMS Advisory Council General Outreach and Draft Management Plan Outreach

Sean provided a series of questions to the Advisory Councils to help stir discussion between them.

The Advisory Councils discussed items such as: the role of working groups, membership of working groups, use of the Management Plan as an outreach tool to At-large members, planning agendas, and membership of Advisory Councils.

The topic of taking five years to complete a Management Plan arose as an item of concern for both Advisory Councils. Chris Harrold, MBNMS Research primary, and Bill Douros suggested that the chairs of both Advisory Councils pressure the National Marine Sanctuary Program on Management Plans.

V. JOINT MANAGEMENT PLAN REVIEW (JMPR) UPDATE

Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) Consultation Regarding Davidson Seamount

Sean Morton explained that the PFMC agrees with the goals and objectives of the MBNMS for protection of Davidson Seamount and supports inclusion in the MBNMS. The PFMC believes that the designation document should not be changed to expand the scope of regulation to include fishing below 3000 feet in the Davidson Seamount area. The PFMC stated that protection of the Davidson Seamount from fishing should be regulated using the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Sean also highlighted the draft action plan fact sheets in the back of the room. Anyone interested in any of the action plans can sign up to receive a final copy of the appropriate action plan fact sheet. The fact sheets should be printed within the next six weeks.

Tom Canale, Commercial Fishing primary, expressed his unhappiness with the PFMC decision on the Davidson Seamount. Bill Douros explained that the MBNMS was not looking to make this a sanctuary regulation if it could be protected under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

VI. MBNMS SOUTHERN REGION REPORT

PJ Webb provided an update on issues and activities in the southern region of the MBNMS. Sewage spills have recently occurred in San Simeon and south of the sanctuary in Avila. The Marine Interest Group (MIG) has provided a tremendous amount of input on the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process. The MIG also made a statement in opposition to the San Luis Unit drainage proposal. There has been good water quality monitoring data from Estero Bay. A new Morro Bay Ecosystem Management Plan is available. Michele Roest, Andrew DeVogelaere and Ron Massengill have done a wonderful job providing outreach. PJ commented that the public sense of ownership to protect the Davidson Seamount is strong in the southern region. Public comment has gone up exponentially. The Friends of the Elephant Seal docent program has been amazing program members have been providing great outreach for the sanctuary.

VII. FRIENDS OF THE ELEPHANT SEAL UPDATE

Ann Grossman, President of the Board of Directors for the Friends of the Elephant Seal, gave a history of the Friends of the Elephant Seal docent program. She commented that the seals are doing great. There was a population of 12,000-14,000 elephant seals this year. Number of pups increased by 500 from 2004 to 3,500 in 2005.

The Friends of the Elephant Seal were able to acquire a grant to finish their boardwalk. They currently have 80 active docents contributing 9,594 volunteer hours per year. For more information on the Friends of the Elephant Seal, you can visit their website at www.elephantseal.org

VIII. NORTHERN MANAGEMENT AREA (NMA) UPDATE

Liaison Report

Steve Shimek, MBNMS liaison to the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary (GFNMS) Advisory Council, highlighted items of interest from the last GFNMS Advisory Council meeting. He commented that people attended the meeting were interested in the proposed jet-ski regulations. These people had some strongly-held beliefs and this was the first time GFNMS had experienced that. The GFNMS Advisory Council did not take any action at the meeting.

The GFNMS Advisory Council also passed a resolution regarding the seismic survey of petroleum reserves that is in President Bush's Energy Plan. Deborah commented that the MBNMS Advisory Council would come back to this at the end of the day to agendize it for an upcoming Advisory Council meeting.

The GFNMS Advisory Council also discussed the MBNMS Advisory Council suggestion to amending the NMA section of the charter. The substance of their conversation was that they felt it was ambiguous as to who took a leadership role of the NMA. They want to take the lead on issues confronting the area. Steve commented that he and Kaitilin Gaffney, MBNMS Conservation primary, would like to advise that this is the Advisory Council charter and should not include staff-related items. It is their opinion that Dan Basta made it clear that GFNMS take the lead in that area and MBNMS need to leave it at that.

Bob Wilson, GFNMS liaison to the MBNMS Advisory Council, suggested at the joint December meeting that the two Advisory Council's cover issues that they could work collaboratively on, such as the seismic surveys and possible work with the CINMS Advisory Council. He also commented that the GFNMS Advisory Council had reviewed the letter the MBNMS Advisory Council had sent to Dan Basta regarding their frustrations on the delays in the release of the Draft Management Plan, as well as the response from Dan Basta. They would like to write a letter expressing similar concerns. They also would like to write a letter stating that they thought it was a mistake to link the boundary expansion and regulations, and that they believe the two should be separated. Within the NMA, they have finished a review of their fishing operations by EcoTrust. This is the same company doing surveys in Morro Bay where they experienced concerns from fishermen. Barbara Emley, Chair, GFNMS, is making personal calls to fishermen to help that project go through. There recently was an event for the opening of a joint GFNMS and Cordell Bank NMS exhibit. Bob also commented that on August 4th, the new Marine Mammal Center's Rehabilitation Center opened in San Luis Obispo.

IX. ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Chris Harrold announced that the 2006 Sanctuary Currents Symposium planning process has begun. If there are any thoughts on a focus for this symposium, you should email Chris or Liz Love of the MBNMS staff. There is some momentum to focus it on Marine Protected Areas, including Marine Reserves. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Board of Directors has approved a $500,000 research project in conjunction with the Tuna Research Center.

Paul Reilly, CA Department of Fish and Game primary, announced that the monthly MLPA Regional Stakeholder Group meetings will be August 10th-11th at the Monterey Beach Resort Hotel in Seaside. The following meeting will be September 7th-8th at the Cambria Pines Lodge in Cambria.

Charles Lester, CA Coastal Commission alternate, announced that, in regards to commissioners, the selection process is now constitutional. He is working on a long-range development plan of a terrace site. It is a 20-25 year plan for developing an ocean science campus.

Brian Johnson, Assistant Manager, GFNMS, announced that the GFNMS is hosting their Annual Oceanfest, sustainable seafood outreach and education event, on October 8th at the Presidio field complex in San Francisco.

X. UPDATE ON SAN SIMEON VISITOR CENTER/OFFICE

Michele Roest, Education Specialist based in San Simeon, provided a status update on the MBNMS San Simeon office and visitor center space. She announced that the office space was primarily completed. The visitor center space has been gutted and is awaiting installation. She provided artist renderings of some of the exhibits that will be a part of the visitor center.

After the meeting, Advisory Council members and staff adjourned to the San Simeon Visitor Center and offices to view the improvements since their last Cambria meeting in October of 2004.

NEXT MEETING: October 7th, 2005, Watsonville

Tape ended at 2:48 p.m. The meeting adjourned at 3:05 p.m.

Submitted by
Nicole Capps
Sanctuary Advisory Council Coordinator