September 13, 2010 Teleconference Meeting Agenda 10:00 am noon

Transcription

1 September 13, 2010 Teleconference Meeting Agenda 10:00 am noon Council Member 13 September 2010 Voting Members Dr. Karl Havens Dr. John Ogden Dr. Lisa Robbins Dr. Thomas Waite Dr. Peter Ortner Dr. James Cato Dr. Bill Causey Holly Greening Dr. Jerome Lorenz Dr. Shirley Pomponi Jane Davis Dr. Ernest Estevez Richard Pruitt Jerry Sansom Mark Carter Ex Officio Members Bob Ballard Gil McRae Sherman Wilhelm Staff Becky Prado Lee Edmiston Linda Sedlacek Public none During Becky s absence, Linda Sedlacek will assist the FOCC. Let her know if you need anything. 1. The Effects of Climate Change on Ocean and Coastal Resources Dr. Estevez gave a brief overview of the updated draft. o Dr. Estevez oversaw the development of a section on sea level rise and how it pertains to coastal forests and wetlands. Ms. Greening also oversaw a similar

2 section, but it focused on how sea level rise pertains to rivers, bays, estuaries. Dr. Estevez combined the two sections. Some discussion took place regarding unfilled categories under What is possible. o The categories under What is possible were originally created to identify bins or subtopics. o These bins could be deleted and the items under each heading could be bulleted, but it was also felt that empty categories might be important from a data gap perspective. At this point, plan to delete the bins. Need Ms. Greening to address a few of the reviewer s comments. Drs. Ortner and Havens sections are done. Need to check with Dr. Robbins about USGS approval. Once Ms. Greening has completed her changes, Linda Sedlacek will send the draft out for comments (ask Ms. Greening about setting a date for comments). Will vote on approving the document at the October in person meeting. 2. Request to sponsor Oil Spill Conference USF is planning an Oil Spill Conference jointly with Mote on February 9 12, 2011 in St. Petersburg titled: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, A conference on lessons learned: charting our future. Mr. McRae wanted to give FOCC the change to be a cosponsor. Lots of discussion on the topic. Some members felt that it would be a good match with some of the other conferences that the FOCC has cosponsored, but others felt that it would be most appropriate to wait to see if the Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO) agreed to cosponsor it. If FIO cosponsored, then it would probably be appropriate. Will await an update on FIO s stance and discuss at our October in person meeting. Dr. Pomponi mentioned that many other oil spill related meetings are taking place around the Gulf of Mexico and in Florida. o A Joint Science and Technology Meeting will also be hosted by USF October 5 6 in St. Petersburg. Would like to have someone from FOCC attend to make the FOCC s existence known. Mr. McRae will try to attend and provide an update at the October in person meeting. 3. Updates on oil spill activities FIO o Will have a meeting on Wednesday and Thursday of this week in Orlando for Principal Investigators that will be receiving BP oil spill funds from FIO. The purpose of the meeting is to inform everyone of what people are doing in an effort to identify synergies and to avoid overlaps in efforts. o Not sure if additional funds will come from BP to FIO right now. Still in the discussion phase. Mr. Edmiston let everyone know that there are a lot of discussions right now between the Gulf of Mexico Alliance and BP regarding funds as well. o Dr. Pomponi will not be at the October in person meeting. She will be at a meeting in China

3 USGS no representative present SeaGrant (provided by Mr. McRae) o SeaGrant and Scotts (MiracleGro) sponsored a syposium on bioremediation in Pensacola last week or the week before. They discussed two main approaches: Bioaugmentation where microbes are added (not as efficient) Bioremediation where nutrients are added to feed microbes that are naturally present (works best, but need to ensure that it is kept oxic). Should have a summary of the meeting out soon. o [Post teleconference note, additional information on above workshop. Florida Sea Grant, University of Florida, and University of Cincinnati co sponsored a symposium on bioremediation in Pensacola on August 31 st. The event was funded by The Scotts Miracle Gro Company. Participants were from major universities around the Gulf, from the FWRI, Escambia County, Scotts and BP. The following provides meeting highlights. After plenary talks on the state of the northern Gulf and the history of using bioremediation to degrade oil in wetlands, three break out groups addressed critical issues and they are developing recommendations that will be presented in a summary report in late October. The three break out groups addressed these questions: (a) is bioremediation an appropriate method to consider in the oil impacted areas of the Gulf; (b) what specific methods of bioremediation might be most effective if a decision is made to use it; and (c) what ecological attributes should be monitored to ensure that bioremediation, if it is done, has a net benefit? Some major points that came out in closing discussion included: (a) there is a diverse and abundant microbial flora in the Gulf that is adapted to using oil as a carbon source; (b) as a result, oil is degrading relatively quickly without human intervention; (c) there may be huge logistical challenges to doing an active bioremediation because affected marsh areas extend for hundreds of miles, are only 10 to 20 feet wide, and are influenced by tide; (d) before any large scale work is done, there needs to be controlled experiments at a smaller scale to identify an approach that achieves the desired goal of removing hydrocarbons while not having adverse ecological impacts; (e) there also is a need for long term ecological data collection around the Gulf, so that if an event like the DWH spill happens again, there are before impact data against which to compare impacts, natural recovery and human augmented recovery.] DACS

4 o The food safety laboratory in Tallahassee started running food samples (retail and from FDA from various states) utilizing NOAA methods to test for contamination from oil products. Receiving fish and shellfish samples from grocery stores, seafood markets, and different lines along the streams of commerce to see if oil products are present. Results are not on the website, but they are publicly available. FWC o Fills the state scientific coordinator role in the command center in Mobile; staff have rotated through Mobile for the past few months. They have kept Florida engaged in planning activities and science plans. One of those, the subsurface monitoring plan is now of high priority. Will have Teams tasked with looking for subsurface oil nearshore. o In the next few weeks the current command setup in Mobile will transition to GCIMT (Gulf Coast Incident Management Team) in New Orleans. Will continue to have Florida presence as well as NRDA representation. o Additional a branch for Florida will be set up in Pensacola as well as Divisions (reporting to the Branch) in Pensacola, Destin, Panama City, and Port St. Joe to assist with long term activities related to the oil spill. o Agreed on a transition plan for wildlife response; will engage established wildlife rehabilitation experts in Florida. This infrastructure will be used when oiled wildlife is reported. o Heavily engaged with Mr. Edmiston in NRDA, which has meetings every few weeks. DEP o Discussions began among the Trustees on early restoration activities and emergency restoration has been proposed. Both require funding. o Preparing for the public component of NRDA to educate the public about NRDA in the panhandle. o Mr. Edmiston will talk about NRDA to those who received BP funds through FIO. o Just suspended their routine sampling in the Panhandle for oil in sediment. The Department of Health is negotiating with the other states to do long term monitoring funded by BP related to sampling water and sediment related to seafood safety. o Injury assessment going on by DEP and FWC in beaches, marshes, and seagrass beds primarily in the western parts of Florida. Injury assessment in some areas will start winding down, and we will start determining the amount of injury sustained and how best to restore it. Related scientific studies will need to be very detailed with legally defensible methods and statistics. o No assessment yet of artificial reefs or offshore sand bars. Next big focus on the federal level is where oil may be in passes, estuaries, and directly offshore. Started looking at the federal methods are using in state waters. They have found some oil products on the bottom of Pensacola Bay near the Naval Air

5 4. Annual Research Plan Station and the backside of Fort Pickins; trying to get an idea of how much of the marsh in the area has been oiled. Dr. McRae and Dr. Ortner are interim leads and will work with Dr. Sedlacek on making some changes. Suspect that the general priorities will hold. Need to establish research priorities and how they would help with oil spill to bring to a reality for decision makers. At the October in person meeting, we will plan a core working session to discuss edits and perhaps change the format. 5. Request from State Parks re: participation in celebrating John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park s 50 th Anniversary All agreed that FOCC should participate. Dr. Causey, and Mr. McRae will attend and represent the FOCC. The FOCC does not have an education booth, but Mr. Edmiston will get Dr. Causey the FOCC banner and fliers. Dr. Causey will get the placard boards from the ecosystem discovery center on economics and climate change. Will set up a table beside the Florida Keys Sanctuary table. 6. Next Council Teleconference October 14, 2010 Today is the cutoff date for the room block, so make your reservations now. Dr. Sedlacek will talk with Ms. Davis about meeting space logistics. 7. Public Comment Public comment was invited. No comments were received. For public comment guidelines, see the Council website at 8. Other business

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