Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary
Sanctuary Advisory Council Meeting
March 21, 2001
Skidaway Institute of Oceanography
Savannah, GA

Attendance:
SAC Members Present: Jim Henry, Judy Wright, Doug Rader, Bing Phillips,
Henry Ansley, Dave Cinalli, Joe Kimmel, Matt Gilligan, Patty McIntosh,
Ann Frick, George Sedberry

NOAA Gray's Reef staff in attendance: Reed Bohne, Marcy Lee, Cathy
Sakas, Becky Shortland, Alex Score, and Ralph Rogers

Other NOAA staff in attendance: Tom Culliton, Tim Goodspeed

Public in attendance: None

Distributed Materials: One packet including
* Agenda
* January 23, 2001 meeting minutes
* Strategy evaluation matrix
* Criteria
* Criteria definitions
* Gray’s Reef Goals and Objectives
* List of Prohibited Activities
* Chair’s comments at SAC workshop
* Visitors center brochure
* Research coordinators workshop report
* MPA update

Chairman Jim Henry called the meeting to order and minutes were approved
from the January 23, 2001, SAC meeting. The agenda was reviewed and
approved with no changes or additions.

Strategy Evaluation
Reed Bohne reviewed the proposed purposes and methods to evaluate the
strategies that have been compiled from the Sanctuary Habitat
Conservation and Sanctuary Species Conservation workshops. Tom Culliton
and Tim Goodspeed will facilitate the exercise, which is expected to
take up the majority of the day. In order, to better prepare for the
upcoming research workshop, some strategies may not be discussed today
that pertain to education and enforcement.

Tim Goodspeed explained the worksheets and asked SAC members for any
corrections or additions. SAC members believed that two criteria should
be added to the worksheet: Institutional Complexity and Visibility.

Becky Shortland read each strategy and offered some additional guidance
on the intent of each idea. Tom Culliton led the SAC members through
each question/criteria asking SAC members to assign a value in each box
on the worksheet. Staff emphasized that the exercise of scoring was
primarily to promote discussion about the strategies. The actual scores
themselves are much less important in the overall evaluation.

Due to an unexpected appointment, Chairman Jim Henry left the meeting
soon after lunch; Vice-chair Matt Gilligan continued the meeting as the
remainder of strategies were reviewed and evaluated.

Old Business
Matt Gilligan then moved to address old business on the agenda. Tim
Goodspeed spoke highly of the SAC chairs/coordinators workshop held at
the end of January. Reed Bohne noted that the report from the Research
Coordinators Workshop was included in distributed materials, and Becky
Shortland also mentioned that an update on NOAA’s Marine Protected Areas
initiative was also included. The group discussed the upcoming
programmatic workshops and their content. The research workshop is
scheduled for April 11-12, 2001, in Savannah. The education workshop is
tentatively scheduled for May 17, and the enforcement workshop for May
24; locations and other logistics have not been determined.

Reed Bohne gave a brief update on the status of the visitor’s center
concept for Savannah. There continues to be a great deal of support for
the concept among Savannah leaders.

Reed Bohne also noted that the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council
would be hosting scoping meetings in May to gain public input on
potential marine protected areas. Meetings are scheduled for May 15th
in Brunswick, and May 16th in Savannah. Meetings will also be held in
South Carolina, Florida and North Carolina.

Becky Shortland updated the group on Rod Ehler’s socioeconomic profile.
Thanks are due to Doug Rader for encouraging a group of Duke University
graduate students (to study) in Gray’s Reef. The students have proposed
a survey of recreational fishermen to gather additional user information
that is important for the profile. Reed Bohne mentioned the possibility
of combining efforts with Savannah State University.

Cathy Sakas announced the Gray’s Reef Ocean Festival slated for April
28th on River Street in Savannah. She also mentioned the outreach
efforts on local radio stations, as well as the Rivers to Reef series on
public radio.

Public Comment: No public comment.

Matt Gilligan announced that SSU Intern Michelle Duncan is attending the
“Expanding Opportunities in Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences” conference
at Jackson State to promote minority participation in marine sciences.

Tim Goodspeed and Tom Culliton thanked all SAC members for a very
productive meeting.

The next meeting was scheduled for Thursday, June 28, 2001. The
location will be determined soon.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.