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February Meeting Minutes |
MRC MEMBERS PRESENT-Vice Chair Tom Roehl, Phyllis Kind, Hi Bronson,
Dick Toft, Mike Gallion, Don Meehan, Roger Sherman, Jeff Tate, Sharon
Hart, Sayed El-Sayed and Marty Behr; Executive Director Gary Wood; Admin.
Assist. Kate Poss. Visitors: Mary Lou Mills representing the Washington
Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, Frank Roberts of Lagoon Pt., Bill White, a
former MRC member; Duffy Schoeler, Clinton; Hay Schneider, Bush Pt., Freeland;
Bill Niles, Clinton; Russ DeWolfe, Freeland; Don Steadman; Jan Holmes,
former MRC member and Coupeville resident; A.M. Kolval, Oak Harbor; Mary
Kehl, Langley; Walt Ciarkls, Freeland; Jerry Shuck, Freeland; Gary Polant,
Freeland; A. I. Loehn, Clinton; Mike Sato, People for Puget Sound; John
McClure, Coupeville; Fred Starkweather, Freeland; Jan Sabalausky, Oak
Harbor; Kelly Riepma, Oak Harbor; Richard Jones, Clinton; and Don MacKinnon,
Oak Harbor-22 visitors in all.
The meeting began at 4:10 pm with an introduction of Mary Lou Mills, WDFW ecosystem manager for marine resources, who talked about the serious decline of rockfish populations, the need for their protection and WDFW's proposal to create marine protected areas in three areas of Island County-Scatchet Head, Admiralty Head and Keystone. A summary of her talk follows the meeting minutes.
Call to order: Vice Chair Tom Roehl called the business meeting to order at 5:50 pm, following an interesting, lively and frank presentation led by Mary Lou Mills.
Approval of agenda: Today's agenda was approved with a few additions.
Approval of 2/6/02 meeting minutes-Action-Kind moved and Behr seconded approval of the 2/6/02 meeting minutes. The motion was carried.
Update on Salmon Recovery Funding Board (SRFB) Grant
· Wood and Meehan met with the technical panel of SRFB, along with
our eelgrass mapping contractor, Jim Norris and Sandy Wyllie-Echeverria;
plus Dan Penttila, who is heading our forage fish mapping project, last
week. Since Jim Johanneson, who was scheduled to speak about soft-shore
armoring was unable to attend; Wood and Meehan gave their best impromptu
talk about coastal geology. The SRFB said that MRC's project is looking
good-it is the only project seeking funding from SRFB in Island County,
since the Deer Lagoon project withdrew its application last month. SRFB
is expected to make its recommendation on grant awards March 12. SRFB
has about $32 million to grant in total. Our MRC is asking for about $220,000,
along with matching grants of about $122,000
NWSC grants
· Northwest Straits, our parent organization, which supports all
the MRCs, has awarded our MRC a $50,000 action grant, up from a $30,000
grant last year. One of its components involves evaluating and assessing
estuaries, along with funds to support our ongoing mapping of eelgrass
beds, forage fish spawn and bulkhead hardening. NWSC also awarded $3,500
for outreach and workshops.
· Wood said that the MRCs, along with People for Puget Sound, are
considering creation of an educational brochure, pooling their money to
create a high quality product.
· Because of the amount of educational data that could be generated,
it was suggested that folks get a 3-ring binder and add pages to them
as more information becomes available.
New/Unfinished Business
· Meehan said our islandcountymrc.org web is updated and invited
everyone to check it out.
· Buck Malloy will speak at our March 20 meeting on commercial
fishing. Kate will contact Dave Anderson, our former representative, regarding
a press release on Malloy.
· Meehan said he is on the NWSC education committee. The group
wants to host a "Tribes 101" regional training course soon and
how working with tribes fits in with managing marine resources.
· Wood said Terry Williams, representing the Tullalip Tribe will
meet with WDFW's head man March 28th at the NWSC meeting in Clallam County.
The discussion will center on derelict g ear removal and forage fish and
steer clear of hot topics such as Marine Protected Areas. Apparently these
two have not spoken to each other.
· Meehan mentioned that SRFB has asked what we will do with the
data we are creating with our eelgrass, forage fish spawn and bulkhead
hardening map studies. Meehan, Wood, Tate and Stephanie Vasconcellos,
Island County's shoreline planner, have met. Meehan invited the MRC to
join in. Their job is to recommend strategies to use the data that SRFB
funds; for instance, how feeder bluffs affect forage fish habitat.
o Wood said there is comprehensive data from Western Washington University
on hardened bulkheads done in the 1970s. He said it would be interesting
to compare the data from then to now.
· El-Sayed handed around a Science Magazine article on over fishing
and the collapse of marine ecosystems.
· Gallion announced that Paul Dinnel, a crab specialist, will speak
on March 7 at 7:30 pm at the Bayview Senior Service Center. The talk is
sponsored by the Fishing Club of Whidbey Island. Dinnel spoke at the Feb.
2 Sound Waters Conference in Coupeville.
· Roehl asked committee members if they had seen the DRAFT salmon
recovery plan written by Janet Kearsley for the County Surface Water Management
Board. He said it has apparently generated a bit of controversy and might
be worth our committee's review. He offered to send copies of the draft
plan to our committee for review and input. Committee members agreed and
requested he do that.
· Meehan said the SRFB grant review process last November was ragged;
the good thing that came out of the whole thing was that Janet Kearsley
developed a manual on scoring for future projects and how the process
works. Meehan will get an electronic version of this and give to the MRC
membership.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:35 p.m. Our next meeting is at the Heller Road Firehall, Wed. March 6 at 4 to 6 pm.
Marine Protected Areas
And the value of fat old female rockfish
Talk by Mary Lou Mills, WDFW (Wash. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife) ecosystem
manger for marine resources
· Mills brought a stack of handouts (which we have on file) on
this year's proposed Marine Protected Areas; for Island County they include
Scatchet Head, Admiralty Head and Keystone Beach.
· A Marine Protected Area is closed potentially to all taking.
· WDFW accepted the recreational fishing community's comments last
December
· WDFW accepted the commercial fishing community's comments Feb.
8-9
· No decisions were made to approve MPAs; WDFW is expected to make
its decision by March 25
· Mills said now is the prime time for folks to talk with her on
what they want for the 3 proposed areas; please send comments by the first
week of March. Her email is MILLSMLM@dfw.wa.gov
· She showed a slide show/Power Point presentation on MPAs.
· There is a need to conserve our declining resources-there has
been a serious decline in the populations of groundfish-rockfish and ling
cod during the past 20 years.
· The decline is the greatest during the past decade and rockfish
populations are at the lowest level they have been since 1930.
· The decline is not affected by tribal fishing; rather 50% of
rockfish are taken in recreational salmon fishing accidentally hooked;
rockfish are the by-catch when trolling for salmon.
· At Edmonds Underwater Park, which has been closed to fishing
for 30 years, there are higher fish densities and larger fish than in
surrounding fished areas.
o Rockfish mature sexually at 5-7 years and females-the best ones are
fat and old-have their best egg-laying years between 30 to 50 years. They
need to be protected so that they are not hooked in their prime time.
Some live to be 100 years old.
· The concept of a conservation area or the generic Marine Protected
Area is to take off the pressure that salmon fishing has on rockfish.
The concept works well on long-lived species such as rockfish, where the
adults stay within the same area.
· Mills showed a video that explained how rockfish favor rocky
crevices to live in. There lies an ideal rocky crevice that runs about
a mile long at Scatchet Head.
· Regarding Scatchet Head, Mills told the fisherman she knew "they
were waiting to pounce on her."
o She knows that Possession Bar is sacred to salmon fishers; yet the area
considered for protection runs SE from the flashing buoy. There is concern
that fishers may drift into the proposed protected area while trolling
for salmon.
o Reliable divers reports have said the rockfish population was considerably
higher 20 years ago.
o Lingcod are also prevalent here.
o The MRC, according to Mills, has already submitted some great comments
on redesigning this MPA.
o Mills' constraints here are that she is one person in her dept., she
has no budget and she needs to get the pressure off of bottom fish-the
buoy was selected because it is an easy landmark.
o The modified plan includes leaving the sand area open and allowing crab
fishers to continue harvesting crab.
· Keystone
o The jetty is a good habitat for rockfish.
o Beach fishers do not want this area closed-WDFW has received comments
already-divers say they want it closed; they don't want to get hooked
while they're out and about. This is also considered by Parks and Recreation
as a closure area.
· Admiralty Head
o Home to bull kelp beds-fat old female rockfish like to spawn here
o Urchin fishers have sent in their comments-green urchin are harvested
here.
o Fishers say since urchin feed on bull kelp, it would be helpful if the
urchins were harvested to protect the resource and potentially increase
rockfish population.
· Meehan asked how MRCs fit into the MPA picture
o Mills said that Island County alerted her to the fact that it is comprised
of 3-4 basins-WDFW divides the Puget into basins as it considers creation
of MPAs.
o Our MRC can help by educating local fishermen on what is going on, Mills
said.
o Toft wondered if MRC's input, such as its previous comments modifying
the plan for Scatchet Head and Admiralty Head MPAs, makes any difference.
o Mills told him yes, the input does make a difference because it makes
the WDFW staff aware of people's needs and wants and influences staff
recommendations.
· Tribes and MPAs-still an unresolved issue.
· Jan Holmes asked if the fishing for gooey duck clams and urchins
impacts rockfish. MLM said from what she's heard, that fishing is pretty
clean in that there is not a lot of by-catch.
· Don MacKinnon, an Oak Harbor diver, suggested that WDFW set aside
even more areas for protection-it takes generally two years from suggesting
a location, studying its potential as an MPA and creating the legislation
designating its protection.
· Jan Sabalausky of Oak Harbor said she took offense to the reference
that 50% of rockfish is a by-catch of salmon fishers looking for something
to take home. "People do get skunked in salmon and go home,"
she said. "They don't go for the rockfish." Mills told her that
she's caught rockfish accidentally while trolling for salmon in Island
County's waters.
· Because there were more questions waiting to be asked than there
was time to answer them, Roehl suggested we host another workshop; Mills
said to let her know when and she'll be glad to come back and talk.
