Okaloosa County BOCC — November 4, 2012 — Action Item Printout

BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS AGENDA REQUEST DATE: December 18, 2012 TO: Honorable Chairman and Members of the Board FROM: John Hofstad SUBJECT: Promotional Fund Grant Agreement DEPARTMENT: Public Works BCC DISTRICT: All STATEMENT OF ISSUE: Board approval is required to enter into the attached Grant Agreement from the Gulf Coast Seafood and Tourism Promotional Fund. The award represents the cost of the work required to generate an estimate of the biomass on the Okaloosa County reef system. The Grant award is $450,000. BACKGROUND: Okaloosa County citizens and visitors are subject to State regulations restricting the number and types of marine species harvested from reef ecosystems during a defined season. The regulations are restrictive enough to cause resource users to travel to less restrictive states to harvest affected species and thus the County experiences a negative economic impact. The methodology utilized to evaluate the marine resources is complex and includes many assumptions that critics believe skew the results and misrepresent resource populations. The technologies to be implemented in this study will provide an empirical database that can be utilized to challenge and compare to resource estimation model assumptions. The data will be useful for other purposes as well such as defining the density of reefs in the County Large Area Reef Sites, A, B and C and the identification of natural reef systems existing in the survey area. Some Grant Agreement highlights are as follows: - Grant Performance Period - December 1, 2012 - November 30, 2013. - Grant Amount - $450,000 paid in equal increments of $112,500 at project milestones. - Grant Project Task 1 - Provide a detailed scientific study of relative biomass and estimates of species on up to 100 publicly known artificial reefs. - Grant Project Task 2 - Develop a web-based application for the purpose of educating and communicating to the public the findings of the hydroacoustic survey effort. - Grant Project Task 3 - Final Report - Submit a final report that provides for a description of the activities performed, provides an analysis of the data gathered, and provides ways in which this information can be easily translated and conveyed to the non-scientific visitor to highlight the importance of maintaining a healthy eco-system. OPTIONS: Approve/Disapprove RECOMMENDATIONS: Staff recommends the Board approve of the contract and the Chairman signs the document in the indicated location on Page 7. RECOMMENDED BY: APPROVED BY: James D. Curry, County Administrator