MBNMS RAP Meeting Summary March 12th, 2010

Research Activity Panel: Meeting Summary
Chris Harrold, RAP Chair

Host:
Curt Storlazzi - Marine and Coastal Geology (U.S. Geological Survey)

Location:
USGS Coastal and Marine Geology
Pacific Science Center
400 Natural Bridges Drive
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Date: Friday, March 12th, 2010; 9:00 am to 12:00 pm

In Attendance:

* Sanctuary Advisory Council Member: Research (Primary)

† Sanctuary Advisory Council Member: Research (Alternate)

CONSENT ITEMS

Introductions/Modifications to the Agenda (Hunt)

• New RAP Members introduced
  • Steve Haddock, Deep-Sea Ecology (alternate), MBARI
  • Jason Scorse, Social Science (alternate), MIIS
  • Beth Watson, Estuarine Ecology (alternate), ESNERR
• Recruitment for other open seats in progress

HOST PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION

USGS Institutional Update (Storlazzi)

• Curt presented several research projects at USGS, including:
  • Progress of the California Seafloor Mapping Program (http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/mapping/csmp/)
  • Seabed instability: Temporal and spatial scales of change
  • The "Flying Eyeball": HD drop camera to survey sediment grain size studies (northern Monterey Bay)
  • Seafloor Observatory off Santa Cruz Wharf to understand seabed change and sediment transport
  • Chilean Tsunami ADCP sampling
  • Impact of fine-grained (<63 um) dredge disposal on the beach and inner shelf (northern Monterey Bay); And how does it compare to river discharge
  • Event-based discharge of contaminants from San Lorenzo River
  • Submarine groundwater discharge of mercury (Elkhorn Slough and Pajaro River)

ENHANCED ECOSYSTEM-BASED MANAGEMENT INITIATIVE

MBNMS Marine Protected Area Process: Enhanced Ecosystem-based Management Initiative (Lisa Wooninck/MBNMS)

• Lisa discussed the migration of the MBNMS Federal MPAs Initiative under the umbrella of the new Enhanced Ecosystem-based Management Initiative, which focuses on the use of several ocean management tools (including, but not limited to, MPAs) to meet the shared conservation objectives of the Sanctuary and its key partners
• The Initiative is a collaborative effort with key partners (e.g., NOAA Fisheries)
• MBNMS Management objectives include:
  • Protect unique and rare places within MBNMS in their natural state for future generations.
  • Protect areas within MBNMS where natural ecosystem components are maintained and/or restored.
  • Establish research areas within MBNMS that can be used to differentiate between natural variation versus human impacts to ecological processes and components.
  • Promote ecologically and economically sustainable uses, including fisheries, in the Sanctuary.
• To achieve these objectives, the collaborative effort will follow a three-step process:
  1. Develop analytical tools using the best available science and techniques
  2. Engage stakeholders for input and support
  3. Implement non-regulatory actions, and where appropriate, enact regulations through the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Act, and other relevant mandates
• Much of the process in 2010 will be devoted to the following:
  • Step #1 (including the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME) Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA)); led by NOAA Fisheries, with input from Sanctuaries and Fisheries managers
  • MBNMS will host several workshops to identify specific criteria and guidelines for achieving the objectives
• RAP pleased with new approach

PRESENTATION (requested by RAP)

Desalination Guidelines (Brad Damitz/MBNMS & GFNMS)

• Brad described how Desalination activities are relevant to the MBNMS
  • MBNMS Regulations (Discharge, Seabed alteration)
  • Research & Monitoring
• Desal Guidelines are now available, including:
  • Regional Desal approach
  • Desal alternatives and need
  • Plant site selection and structural engineering considerations
  • Monitoring
• For more information, see:
  • Guidelines for Desalination Plants in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS & NMFS 2010; 1.1 MB PDF)
  • Desalination Feasibility Study for the Monterey Bay Region (Damitz et al. 2006; 4.2 MB PDF)

DISCUSSION ITEMS

RAP Attendance, Quorum, and Meeting Schedule (Hunt)

• John Hunt reviewed Chris Harrold's email (3/2/10) regarding attendance, and subsequent email feedback from the RAP
  • Define a quorum, and don't meet unless a quorum has committed to attend. Erica would send out meeting announcements/agendas in advance of the meetings, as she does now. RAP members would be asked to commit to attending at least 3-4 days prior to the meeting. If a quorum had not responded by that time, the meeting would be cancelled.
  • Definition of a quorum: 9 members (out of 12 seats), plus the chair or vice-chair.
  • Reduce the number of meetings from 6 to 4 per year, with the rationale that more people would attend fewer meetings.
  • Schedule RAP meetings to accommodate RAP members' schedules. Rather than scheduling RAP meetings on the second Friday of every other month (our current practice), the RAP would collectively set the year's meeting schedule to avoid as many member schedule conflicts as possible.
  • Add "Sanctuary Research Update" as a standing agenda item, for which Andrew would take responsibility. This item would always include informal updates on sanctuary research items of interest AND/OR more formal sanctuary research items on which the sanctuary staff would like RAP advice/comment/opinion.
  • Make RAP larger to insure larger attendance
  • Revert to Institutional Reps rather than Discipline (not clear how this would improve attendance)
• RAP discussed the above ideas, and prefer the following:
  • Continue assigning RAP membership by discipline rather than institution
  • Continue with 6 meetings per year
  • When preparing RAP meeting schedule, try to schedule around large events that might draw away a number of RAP members (such as WSN)
  • There was much enthusiasm for a Sanctuary Research update at every meeting
  • Consider having an ad hoc or at-large category when a good potential RAP member is available, but works in a discipline that is already filled or is not formally recognized (such as chemical oceanography)

Sanctuary Research Update (DeVogelaere)

• City of Monterey is proposing a Halibut Trawl Fishery north of canyon near Smooth Ridge, and off Fort Ord
  • MBNMS staff may ask RAP for:
    • Input on habitat types
    • Review of S. Cal study (Lindholm already reviewed)
    • Need for local study
• MPA map viewer available on SIMoN website
  • http://www.sanctuarysimon.org/regional_sections/maps/
  • Includes links to project pages on SIMoN
  • Info on monitoring
• Lost Fishing Gear Project
  • The MBNMS and partners are assessing and removing lost fishing gear from deepwater habitats
  • http://montereybay.noaa.gov/resourcepro/resmanissues/lostgear.html
  • Some of the gear is covered with inverts
  • RAP was asked to see if their institutions are interested in collecting attached organisms (e.g., grad student projects)
  • Contact Andrew DeVogelaere, Karen Grimmer, or Erica Burton
  • RAP suggested project leaders should consider whether removing some types of lost fishing gear might do more harm than good
• Sill proposed for Parsons Slough (Elkhorn Slough Tidal Wetland Project)
  • http://www.elkhornslough.org/tidalwetland/parsons.htm
  • If comments, contact Kerstin Wasson or Beth Watson
• MBNMS Budget in bad shape
  • Layoff one Research Team member
  • 3 other contractors going to part-time
  • Decreasing Fulmar time, ~120 to 80 days

Sanctuary Currents (Erica Burton/MBNMS)

• April 10th at CSUMB
• Flyers available for posting at institutions
• http://montereybay.noaa.gov/research/currsymp2010/welcome.html

ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA

CeNCOOS update (Ramp)

• Budget decrease; but received some additional funds
• Model prediction work planned
• Developing new proposal with public input, April 1 (to NOAA IOOS office)
• Modeling workshop ~June

New website (Haddock)

• http://jellywatch.org for recording sightings of jellyfish and other marine organisms

SUGGESTED FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS

• MBNMS will bring copies of new MBNMS Poster (includes Davidson Seamount Management Zone) to next RAP meeting

Future Agenda Items (running list):

• Water Quality
  • Critical coastal areas presentation (ASBS, areas water quality impaired, areas in good state; Ross Clark)
• SIMoN
  • SIMoN Special Status Species Project (Jennifer Brown)
• Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea (COMPASS)
• Wave Model Development and Implementation (Paul Wittmann/Fleet Numerical)
• Data integration across monitoring programs (e.g., water quality, PISCO, MARINe, IOOS), and availability to the public
• Recent event: Supreme Court allows Navy Sonar (per John Hunt)
• Predicting sea level rise for the state of California (Larry Breaker, JPL, OPC)
• CeNCOOS update (new website: activities)
• High-res models of CA (Cayan or Dettinger/USGS)
• National Weather Service Forecast Office (Tom Evans, Warning Coordination Meteorologist)
• Presentation on IEAs (e.g., Phil Levin, Frank Schwing, John Stein), including IEAs that have been implemented (per Yoklavich)
• MPAs
  • State MPA monitoring projects (Jason Vasques)
  • Marine Spatial Planning presentation (per Harrold); Fio recently heard Marine Spatial Planning talk from Massachusetts, or speaker from Center for Ocean Solutions (Meg Caldwell)
• Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae (OMEGA; Jonathan Trent, NASA-AMES)
  • Trent speaking at Sanctuary Currents 4/10/10; if Trent not talking about OMEGA (or other biofuels topic) at Currents, invite him to RAP meeting (per Hunt, DeVogelaere)
• Mike Graham algae/abalone work at Kaiser Property (per Cailliet)