MBNMS: CWGroup Meeting Minutes April 16, 2002

Tuesday, April 16, 2002

Attendance

K. Gaffney (TOC)
M. Rutishauser (FSO)
A. Graves (SOS)
L. Bergen (PISCO)
J. Tang (Keeley)
H. Price (MBNMS)
J. Fisher, A. Hazeltine (FSO)
C. Maehr (ACS)
J. Wickham (SC)
D. Ingraham (FSO)
R. Saunders, R. Vreeland (City of Monterey)
T. Eichenberg (OCEANA)
Reed Addis (Farr).

Annoucements

Snapshot Day 2003 will be held on April 20.
Monterey peninsula residents have asked Rep. Farr to grant the Great Tidelpools in PG National Monument status; the PG Natural Resources Committee has also been asked to take action to protect the tidelpools.

Sanctuary Report

Sanctuary staff is working on educating pilots (and developing a poster) about the impacts of low flying planes on birds and marine mammals.
The Alliance of Com. for Sus. Fisheries is working to ID the most and least important fishing areas along the coast (info for marine reserve process).
Sanctuary staff is working to improve coordination between agencies on vessel grounding response.

JMPR

The MBNMS has received over 16,000 scoping comments during the JMPR process so far. The 3 SACs will held joint meeting on 4/15 to discuss prioritizing issues. The MBNMS will hold its own meeting to do the same on April 29th in Monterey. Eventually the priority issues will be covered in Action Plans developed by ad hoc working groups.

Cruise Ships

Princess Cruise lines has agreed to zero discharge in the MBNMS.
Sanctuary regs prohibit discharge of raw sewage and any oily bilge water.
MSDs have documented problems such that “treated” sewage often fails to meet federal standards even after it has been through an MSD.
Eric Russell of the Aquatic Protection Agency plans to monitor ocean waters behind the Star Princess by taking samples.
Tim Eichenberg of Oceana gave a presentation on growth in the cruise ship industry, the inadequacy of existing cruise ship regulations and difficulty of enforcement, environmental problems associated with cruise ship pollution, and suggestions for future improvements. Tim suggested a ban on dumping untreated sewage, requiring discharge permits for any discharges, comprehensive reporting and monitoring of discharges, better enforcement and improved air quality rules. He also supported the zero discharge in the Sanctuary policy the CWG has lobbied for.