Pacific County Marine Resources Committee

Meeting Notes – Thursday,February 8th, 2018

South Bend AnnexBuilding - South Bend, WA

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Attending:

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Doug Kess, Mike Cassinelli (via phone), Kevin Decker, Michael Spencer, Kristine Nevitt, Mike Nordin, Key McMurry, Jeff Nesbitt and Courtney Hagain.

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Introductions and Minutes: 5Members, 2 Alternates, 2 guestpresent.

Adjustments to the Agenda:

None at this point

Approval of Minutes:

Next month will approve these

Item #1 WCMAC

Doug reported that they are going to be moving from the MSP talk and towards a coastal resiliency program. He mentioned that this won’t restore the same passion as what formed the group but it will still be there. There will be a hydrogen extraction presentation coming. The aim of this new avenue is to focus on projects that enhance coastal resiliency meaning hazards or growth of citizens. DOE has a $200,000 grant with a specific focus on hazards.

Item #2 VOCAL

Doug Kess reported that the VOCAL is working on a letter about the offshore drilling and that there have been resolutions from the City of Ilwaco, Ports, GH MRCR to BOEM. Doug will be working on getting the City of Raymond and South Bend to sign on to these letters. He will be sending out a fillable letter to the cities and various other entities that are easy for them to fill out. Key McMurry mentioned that the Lead Entity will be sending a letter to BOEM. Doug mentioned that there has been some opposition at the county because they don’t want to make waves with DOE funding. Key McMurry mentioned that we need to remind them that during the CZMA, MSP, SMP process that this all could have been avoided in done at that time.

Item #3 WCRI

Key McMurry mentioned that Jess and Mitch have been hitting the Legislative Halls as its still important to fund the entire list. She mentioned the important of having this funded consistently at the $12-12.5 million range every year. The RFP’s are due in April and will be done by September and with have the technical advisory group to do the ranking. The group explained the history of the WCRI to Kristine. Kevin Decker asked if there was a map that shows all of the projects that have been done and proposed for the WCRI that everyone can see.

Item #4 Science Conference

Doug reported that Kim Patten has the afternoon half of the agenda and Mike Nordin has the morning half of the agenda. Mike reported that he has been vetting down a list of speakers because he wants to make this conference a knock out. Courtney reported that she has tried several times to get ahold of The Cove for catering of the Science Conference but has been unable to do so. Jeff Nesbitt asked the group if they would like him to contact his friend from the USCG who is working on a study on dungeons’ crab and how the domoic acid affects them. This is a qualitative and quantitative study on the economic impact.

Item #5 PEI Summer Institute

Courtney reported that Julie Tennis let her know that 8 teachers in Pacific County are willing and able to attend the summer institute. At $200 per teacher it would cost a total of $1,600 to fund. Key McMurry made a motion to approve the Three-Day Summer Institute with PEI. Michael Spencer seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously by voice vote.

Public Comment:

Mike Nordin noted that on January 31st there is a Webinar on Eelgrass Habitats on the U.S. West Coast. Doug Kess noted ocean acidification is altering the California mussel’s shells. Brian Sheldon noted that there are ducks in the bay and asked if WDFW could have a monitoring program to count them.

Motions:

  • Key McMurry made a motion to approve the Three-Day Summer Institute with PEI. Michael Spencer seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously by voice vote.

Adjourn: 6:45 PM.

Next Meeting: Thursday, March 8th, 2018in Long Beach, WA from 6pm to 8pm.

Minutes respectfully submitted by: Courtney Hagain, 360-875-6735,

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