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February 19, 2021

Remarks of Kathy Fosmark on the Role of the Commercial Fishing Representative on the Monterey Bay Sanctuary’s Advisory Council
“... my role on the SAC is to represent the commercial fishing men and women of the region who utilize Sanctuary waters. I note that according to Congress, the advice we give to the sanctuary regarding a management decision, or a new sanctuary designation, is framed neutrally: it could be positive—yes, fishermen will support---or negative---fishermen will not support this...”
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January 7, 2022
Re: Docket No. BOEM-2021-0083 - Request for Information on Reducing or Avoiding Impacts of Offshore Wind Energy on Fisheries
“... ACSF: We welcome BOEM providing generalized guidance for Industry-to­Industry negotiation, with the understanding that it is not prescriptive, but guidance, subject to regional needs and the nuances of negotiation. Some guiding principles may be applied across the nation, but regional differences in approach must be respected. The ACSF also welcomes state agency assistance in using its authorities to encourage/require OSW developers to enter into fishing community compensation agreements. We believe that assuring the resilience of fishing communities is a shared goal ...”
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January 25, 2022
To: Michael F. McAllister, Vice Admiral, USCG Pacific Area re: Federal eRulemaking Portal https://www.regulations.gov. Docket #USCG-2021-0345; ACSF comments on the Port Access Route Study
“... addressing these goals, the ACSF believes that the greatest change to the navigational seascape in the Central Coast of California are the proposed offshore wind (OSW) farms which are very likely to be installed northwest of Morro Bay. Currently coastal ship traffic runs right through the area proposed by BOEM for OSW development. Towboats with barges tend to run shoreward but close to the proposed area. It is clear that large vessel traffic will not be able to pass through these wind farms, consisting of as many as 350 floating turbines. Thus, if the Coast Guard seeks to accommodate these new structures, ship traffic will be displaced. This will cause potential safety concerns, and effectively further limit--beyond the footprint of the wind farms-fishing area...”
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January 31, 2022
To: Mr. John Armor, Director Office of National Marine Sanctuaries NOAA, 1305 East-West Highway, 11th Floor Silver Spring, MD 20910 re: RE: Document #NOAA-NOS-2021-0080- 0001 ~ Notice of Intent - Proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary
”… The ACSF has had extensive experience with the Monterey Bay and Channel Islands NMS's. Please accept the following comments about the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary (CHNMS): NOAA's proposed CHNMS designation is built on untrue and incorrect assertions and violates NOAA's own guidelines and its Administrative designation process

For the CHNMS designation, NOAA is using an administrative designation process, as compared to the traditional Congressional process, which was established by NOAA in 2014 under 15 C.F.R. Part 922, Subpart B. The administrative designation process is based on, in large part, the important premise of consensus community support where all key interest groups are on board with the proposal. The administrative designation mechanism is used, as opposed to the Congressional process, for proposals that are lacking in controversy or potential negative impacts on affected interest group or sector …”
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February 9, 2022
To: California Coastal Commission, State Lands Commission & California Energy Commission Re: Creating a template and managing Entity to address unwanted, adverse impacts on California's fisheries from Offshore Wind Development
“...we the undersigned commercial fishing organizations (CFO's) support the concepts found in the attached Fishing Community Benefit Agreement (FCBA) template. While we do not claim to represent the interests of every commercial fishing (CF) man and woman in the state, we do feel that our collective view represents the great majority of the State's CFO's which will be impacted by offshore wind (OSW) development...”
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February 9, 2022
Fisheries Community Benefit Agreements
“... what is a Fisheries Community Benefit Agreement (FCBA)?  A FCBA is a legally binding agreement made between an OSW company which is bidding on a BOEM-advertised lease (or which has been awarded a lease) for the opportunity to build a wind farm, and one or more commercial fishing organizations (CFO’s) whose members regularly fish the waters of the project area, including electrical cable routes to shore and security/safety zones which may surround these projects. If the OSW company is not awarded a lease, the FCBA with that company is void. The term of the FCBA shall be equal to the term of the OSW lease and any extensions or transference thereto...”
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July 20, 2022
To: Scott M. Rumsey, Acting Regional Administrator, NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. Re: NOI to prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement for identification of one or more Aquaculture Opportunity Area(s) in Southern California
“... Fishermen do not support aquaculture projects that remove productive fishing grounds from harvest opportunity. We have lost, and are continuing to lose, areas to MPA's (state and federal), wind energy projects, telecommunication cables, shipping lanes, etc. These closures, plus temporary closures such as to avoid whale interactions, have already put California fishermen on the ropes...”
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July 29, 2022
Has Our Sanctuary Kept its Promise to its Fishermen?
“... the answer is no; please let us explain. Reflect back to 1992 when the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (“Sanctuary”) was proposed. While fishermen and most others agreed that it could help prevent offshore oil development, we had concerns about how Sanctuary authority might affect those of us who provide food from ocean resources. There was also public discussion about how stakeholders would have a say in the new federal bureaucracy. Commercial fishermen and recreational anglers had killed two earlier sanctuary proposals over these concerns...”
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November 29, 2022
To: Senior Energy Advisor, Office of Governor Newsom California Coastal Commission, California Energy Commission, California State Lands Commission, California Ocean Protection Council, California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Re: California’s Commercial Fishing Men and Women, and our Communities need the State’s Further Support; Next Steps
“... What we need: California’s commercial fishermen are appreciative of many of the comments and recommendations State Agencies made to BOEM to mitigate the impacts on our ability to harvest a public trust resource and contribute the State’s food security from Offshore Wind (OSW) development. Still, fishermen see that there remains the real possibility that the socioeconomic contributions that fishermen bring to the state, along with providing nourishing, low carbon-footprint food, will be crushed by OSW development...”
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February 10, 2023
To: California Energy Commission. Re: Commission Report: Developing a Permitting Roadmap for Offshore Wind Energy Development off the Coast of California
“... the ACSF represents a large cross-section of fishing and community interests for the Central Coast of California near the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area (WEA). The ACSF believes that the Permitting Roadmap for Offshore Wind (OSW) is the right place to identify when and how mitigation-compensation will be addressed by the state for impacts caused by OSW...”
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February 10, 2023
To: California Energy Commission Docket 17-MISC-01. Re: Commission Report: Preliminary Assessment of Economic Benefits of Offshore Wind
“... The ACSF does not believe that the report provides an accurate assessment of needed seaport investments. We have deep concerns about the stated and unstated assumptions that underlie the CEC's draft Benefits Report. As we will discuss, the report skips over the manufacturing and assembly potential of the state's existing deep-water cargo ports. The report reads like its task is to imagine billions of dollars in huge public investments in new ports and infrastructure in support of OSW, with the unstated goal being to create a maximum number of jobs, and therefore economic benefits. This is far different from an analysis identifying the most cost-effective, efficient, least impactful, method of supporting OSW manufacturing and assembly.

The Benefits report also fails to identify, even in a cursory way, the many environmental and socioeconomic costs that will be attributed to OSW development, with or without new port construction. The Benefits Report contemplates throwing billions of dollars at OSW development, without any discussion of how such development will cause the loss of fishing industry jobs, with resultant harm to fishing dependent communities. The ACSF can only hope that the pending CEC report documenting impacts from OSW on a variety of stakeholders will be competently done...”
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September 3, 2023
To: Brad Pettinger, Chair Pacific Fishery Management Council Re: Questions and Comments on the Draft Management Plan (DMP) and other Documents for the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary (CHNMS).
”… The CHNMS federal register notice contains a list of threats that the proposed sanctuary designation will reduce or curtail. Among them: many threatened or endangered species, such as blue whales, snowy plovers, black abalone, white sharks, and sea turtles, rely on habitats, physical features, or prey found in the proposed sanctuary." And, "Several key threats to these natural, cultural, and historical resources include: various levels of human development and activity from offshore energy development, decommissioning and removal of coastal and offshore industrial facilities, sound discharges and whale strikes from vessel traffic, plastics, marine debris and pollutants from coastal runoff, and most of all, acute and cumulative impacts of climate change." We note that nearly all of these "threats" are already addressed by existing law, such as the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery and Conservation Management Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the Native American Cultural Preservation Act ...”
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October 19, 2023
To: Haven Parker, Sanctuary Advisory Council Coordinator Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS). Re: Support of Tim Obert to be the primary SAC commercial fishing representative
The ACSF nominates and strongly supports Tim Obert to fill the position of SAC commercial fishing representative. We believe Tim meets these qualifications. Tim is a full-time fisherman out of Santa Cruz, supporting his family by fishing for salmon, Dungeness crab, albacore, and open-access for black cod and the groundfish complex.
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October 25, 2023
To: Paul Michel,Regional Policy Coordinator sent via Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov, docket NOAA-NOS-2021- 0080 Re: Comments on the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary (CHNMS) Draft Management Plan and Environmental Documents
”… 1) The CHNMS draft designation documents must be paused for a substantive re-write and submitted again for public comment. It is clear from public testimony that there is dissention centering around who is authentically positioned to represent tribal interests and goals. The ONMS must pause the designation process to resolve this dissention.

Afterall, it is being promoted as a "tribal led" nomination, with "tribal co-management". If it doesn't, the CHNMS and the ONMS will likely be doomed to years of disputes. The ACSF notes that the original nomination, submitted by Fred Collins, has been questioned for many years as possibly not coming from an authentic indigenous tribe. The CHNMS designation process, draft management plan and other environmental documents suffer, therefore, from substantial uncertainty. It is not for the ACSF to suggest how this dispute must be resolved, but rather we strongly suggest that it must be resolved before actual designation as a NMS…”
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