Chairman Wise opened the meeting at 2:10 pm.

Mr. Gordon Colvin, Director of Marine Resources for NYS DEC, referred to a decision made by the Council at an earlier meeting to investigate aspects of re-doing the comprehensive study of PCB’s in striped bass from New York’s marine waters, in part to determine whether or not levels of this chemical in fish from within the current closed area are now low enough to warrant moving the closure line.  He reminded the Council that, as a first step, it was agreed that DEC would gather information concerning a technical scope for the cost analysis of such a project; this has been prepared.  Mr. Colvin noted that the next step is to hold a conference call with the interested parties on the Council and others to try to determine the feasibility of alternative ways to raise money for the study and to review options for sample collection, including the possible involvement of volunteer fishermen.  Non-Council members Messrs. John Mihale and Kevin Bradshaw participate on the Council subgroup working on this matter.

Mr. Colvin also commented briefly on the State FY 06/07 budget as far as it affects DEC and, especially the Department’s Bureau of Marine Resources.  Basically, the Department is level funded with last year.  The Department will still be operating under a state-wide hiring freeze, which means that if a staff member should leave, they may or may not be replaced.  Mr. Colvin commented that, currently there aren’t any critical openings in the staffing, however, the Marine Program alone has at least five vacancies that they are trying to fill.  He suggested that, as the Council’s Subcommittee of Marine Program Financing Needs updates its earlier assessment of unmet program needs within the Bureau of Marine Resources, it would be beneficial for the subcommittee to look at the issue of staffing and compare how the levels have changed and how this has affected program delivery performance.

A final agreement has not been reached regarding the level of funding to be allotted to the State Environmental Protection Fund; no appropriations have been made but the legislative and executive branches are working toward a resolution.  This year, the main account of the State Conservation Fund has been running a very substantial structural deficit (multi-millions of dollars).  The FY 06/07 Budget transfers a number of staff from the regular account of the Conservation Fund to the States General Fund as part of a multi-faceted effort to address this deficit.  Mr. Colvin noted that the same thing was done last year as a temporary measure but it will be repeated this year.  He suggested that the Subcommittee on Marine Program Financing Needs might also be interested in this practice.

Finally, Mr. Colvin informed the Council that two long-term staff members of the Department received special recognition at the ASMFC Spring Meeting in May, Messrs. Andy Kane and Byron Young.  They each received ASMFC’s Annual Award of Excellence in the category of Fishery Science.

Draft Minutes, 18 April 2006 Council Meeting

Councilor Sima Freierman’s name will be added to the minutes since she was in attendance and the date on the minutes will be changed from 19 April 2006 to 18 April 2006.  With these changes, the draft minutes were unanimously adopted.

 

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