STATE-FEDERAL FISHERIES MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MINUTES Thursday October 13, 2016 New Orleans, LA

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1 STATE-FEDERAL FISHERIES MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MINUTES Thursday October 13, 2016 New Orleans, LA Dave Donaldson called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. The following members and others were present: Members Chris Blankenship, ADCNR, Gulf Shores, AL Dan Ellinor, FLFWC, Tallahassee, FL Kelly Lucas, MDMR, Biloxi, MS Harry Blanchet (proxy for Patrick Banks), LDWF, Baton Rouge, LA Mark Lingo, TPWD, Austin, TX Roy Crabtree, NOAA Fisheries, Saint Petersburg, FL Dave Donaldson, GSMFC, Ocean Springs, MS Others Dave Van Voorhees, NMFS, Silver Spring, MD Jackie Wilson, NOAA Fisheries, Atlanta, GA Gordon Colvin, MRIP, Silver Spring, MD Toby Gascon, LDWF, Baton Rouge, LA Tom Sminkey, NOAA Fisheries, Silver Spring, MD John Roussel, GSFMC Commissioner, Zachary, LA Wayne Faircloth, TX State Representative, Galveston, TX Staff Gregg Bray, FIN Program Manager Angie Rabideau, GSMFC Senior Accountant Adoption of Agenda The agenda was approved as written. Discussion and Final Approval of FIN Funding Activities for 2017 G. Bray outlined the status of 2017 funding for data collection and management activities. The preliminary numbers show the GulfFIN line item at $4.140M and RecFIN line item at $3.470M. The Gulf portion of the RecFIN line item works out to be about $1.071M. In addition, there is an additional $855K provided by the NOAA OST to allow for large base sampling allocations for MRIP dockside surveys. D. Van Voorhees stated that it is envisioned that NMFS will be operating with a similar budget as NMFS will be required to charge the same administrative fees as 2016 also. Fees for administration of economic surveys in the regions are still mandated to be retained by NOAA each year. With administrative fees removed the amount available for FIN funding in 2017 totals $5.50M. The breakdown of the funding is as follows:

2 GulfFIN line item 4,140,877 OMB administrative fee (191,421) SER administrative fee (2,405) GulfFIN - available 3,947,051 RecFIN line item 3,469,958 OMB administrative fee (256,257) RecFIN - available 3,213,701 Gulf portion of RecFIN (1/3) 1,071,234 SER administrative fee 0 Economics survey (167,631) SEFSC data collections (230,899) RecFIN - available 672,704 Additional funds MRIP funds 855,000 MRIP travel support 25,000 SEFSC funds 0 SER funds 0 HQ funds 0 0 TOTAL AVAILABLE 5,499,755 G. Bray then provided a brief overview of the documents that were distributed to the group. He then discussed the summary of the activities for potential funding in 2017 that was developed by the FIN Committee. The list is attached (Attachment A). The original amount proposed for 2017 for all the jobs proposed was approximately $7.083M, which meant there was about $1.583M (-22.4%) deficit. G. Bray stated Headboat Port Sampling funds come from a different source and do not impact the GulfFIN or RecFIN line item amounts. S. Turner asked about the status ofheadboat funds for G. Bray stated that previous funding provided through SEFSC in 2015 was sufficient to support the 3 port samplers contracted by GSMFC for Alabama, Mississippi and Texas sampling. Unfortunately that will fully utilize the 2015 funds and no monies have been provided to support the Florida headboat sampling in S. Turner asked that the $400K for headboat sampling in Florida be added to the funding comparison spreadsheet to document the funding shortfall. Adding $400K to the GulfFIN budget pushed the total deficit to $1.983M (-26.5%). After considerable discussion C. Blankenship moved to fund Job 1 (Coordination and Administration of FIN Activities), Job 2 (Collecting, Managing, and Disseminating Marine Recreational Fisheries Data), Job 4 (Operation of FIN Data Management System), and Job 5 (Trip Ticket Program Implementation and Operation) and was seconded by K. Lucas. The motion passed 3-2. The committee motion still resulted in a funding deficit of 12.56%. The committee agreed that the deficit would be applied equally to all programs. GSMFC staff 2

3 will work with all program coordinators to obtain revised budgets that reflect the reduced totals for The group discussed the situation where the funding level was either higher or lower than the amount discussed at the meeting. It was noted that if the reduction was at the 12.S6% level or lower, each agency would still take an across the board cut. If the reduction was higher than the 12.S6% level, then the Committee would convene (via conference call) to discuss how to handle reduction. The reductions are as follows: Pro osed Reduction GSMFC $987,334 -$124,031 Texas $180,974 -$22,734 Louisiana $1,250,218 -$157,054 Mississi $777,611 -$97,685 $679,926 Alabama $471,073 -$59,177 $411,896 Florida $2,462,693 -$309,368 $2,153,325 Bluefin Data TT $160,000 -$20,099 $139,901 I TOTAL $6,289,903 I -$790,148 I $5,499,7551 The Committee agreed to reduce their budgets by the outlined amounts. G. Bray stated that in order to meet the submission deadline, states would have to provide their revised statements of work and budgets to the GSMFC no later than October 31, Presentation of HMS Draft Amendment 10 Essential Fish Habitat and Draft Amendment Sb Dusky Shark Management J. Wilson gave a presentation on the status of HMS Draft Amendment 10 on Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) and Draft Amendment Sb for Dusky Sharks. Draft Amendment 10 provided an update to EFH with more recent information, attempts to minimize the adverse efforts of fishing and nonfishing activities on EFH, and identify additional actions to encourage the conservation of EFH. Draft Amendment Sb addresses management scenarios to ensure fishing mortality levels of dusky sharks are maintained at or below levels that would rebuild the stock by Dusky sharks have been prohibited for harvest since For both amendments Wilson provided the current preferred alternatives and reminded partners that the public comment period is open till December 22nd for both draft amendments. Discussion of Documenting Gulf.FIN Eguipment Purchases D. Donaldson stated that NOAA Fisheries is now requiring GulfFIN to document equipment purchases at the end of S year grant cycles. He stated that GulfFIN would like states to provide invoices for equipment purchases with quarterly checklists. GSMFC staff have developed a revised checklist to help remind state partners to provide invoices for equipment purchases. The committee approved the change in methodology and GSMFC will implement the revised checklist in third quarter of

4 Election of Officers K. Lucas was nominated for chairman and C. Blankenship was nominated for vice-chairman. The nominations were closed and both were approved unanimously by the committee. Other Business D. Donaldson asked committee members if continuing to hold the S/FFMC during the fall Commission meeting to reduce additional travel burden was acceptable. The committee was in favor of continuing to meet in conjunction with the fall commission meeting and GSMFC staff would work to minimize conflicts between S/FFMC and other committee meetings. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4: 15 p.m. 4

5 ATTACHMENT A ITEMS FOR CONSIDERATION IN 2017 High Priority Coordination and Administration of FIN Activities - Ongoing Collecting, Managing and Disseminating Marine Recreational Fisheries Data Ongoing Operation of FIN Data Management System- Ongoing Trip Ticket Program Operations in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama - Ongoing Gulf Menhaden Port Sampling- Ongoing Head Boat Port Sampling in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida (funded via alternative source) Ongoing Biological Sampling of Commercial and Recreational Catches - Ongoing Low priority At-sea Sampling for Catch and Discards Data from For-Hire New Collection of Catch and Effort Data via Logbooks for For-Hire Boats - New Highly Migratory Species Recreational Catch and Effort Sampling in the Gulf of Mexico -New Biological Sampling for FIN Secondary Priority Species - New Recreational Red Snapper Data Collection for Catch and Effort New Commercial Conversion Factor Research-New 5