Present: Walt, Jackie, Nicole, Dave, Pam, Mark
Agenda Adendum:Walt announces Liquid Fusion Kayak fundraiser for Mendocino County Water Safety Coalition on Sunday, June 25th at 10:00am in Noyo Harbor.
Board member positions postponed
Treasurer’s report - Jackie
- as of 5/26/17 we have $2,683.29 in our account
- Jackie continues to deposit $5/year to keep account active
- Pam volunteers to be second account checker
Membership - review of current members
- we agree to contact members (first choice is email, will call if email not available) to notify them of International Surfing Day clean-up
- we need to assign this task
Blue Water Task Force
- Walt has been testing Virgin Creek weekly April - October
- Virgin Creek numbers are included in the annual report from Mendocino Environmental Health
- Nicole contacted Surfrider IT Chris Wilson for help with displaying water quality results on our chapter website. Nat’l is encouraging a new website design that no longer supports the Blue Water Task Force widget. We concur that a workaround would be to have a link to the Heal the Bay website. Nicole will generate link.
New Business
- Dave reports on what he is seeing as local ecosystem collapse.
- He is deeply alarmed by the kelp forest devastation, loss of sea stars, decreased abalone population and proliferation of purple urchins.
- Other members have been observing and hearing about these signs as well.
- We concur that this is a disturbing issue and we agree to research and reach out to contacts that may help us with further information. Our goal is to educate the community with what is happening. We agree that a visual presentation would be most helpful. Our to-do list on this issue:
- Dave is going to contact Fish and Game associate and invite them to show her power point presentation.
- Dave is going to contact Jerry Kashawata (sp?) abalone biologist
- Wyatt is going to contact biology professor
- Wyatt recommends getting in touch with Mischa Hedges of Trim Tab media, film maker from the area who might be interested in making a short video to distribute online.
- Nicole is going to contact Noyo Center
- Nicole is going to contact local Audubon and Black Oyster Catcher groups
- Pam suggests contacting local dive shops for more first-hand accounts
- Mark suggests contacting Save the Waves
- It is suggested that we contact Reef Check, a group of citizen scientists
- We agree that it would be beneficial to meet within 4-6 weeks to report back with our findings.
- Nicole will send out Doodle poll with potential meeting times.
Partnering with Noyo Center, education presentations in local schools, Ocean Friendly Gardens: we agree that the first order of business is the above campaign. Some of this may involve collaborating with Noyo Center. We will inform Noyo Center of our 2017 events and possibly co-host a post 4th of July beach clean-up with them.
Beach Access - There are no current access issues
International Surfing Day June 17 - 1-3pm we are meeting at Big River Beach at the bottom of the stairs near the volleyball courts. Nicole will reach out to Sarah Damron and request materials from Nat’l. We need to arrive by 12:30 to set-up.
International Coastal Clean-up Day, September 29 - Nicole will reach out to Mendocino Land Trust for list of beaches covered by clean-up crews.