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My name is Donna Kalez , My family owns and operates Dana Wharf
Sportfishing and Whale Watching in Dana Point , Ca. We have been in
business over 50 years , Our fleet of 17 mostly small boats
operates from the Dana Point Harbor but we are only inside the
Harbor for 5 minutes before we are out into open seas. Also we
never run our boats while docked. All engines are turned off and
plugged into a shore power .  

We are a struggling small business and nothing has threatened to
close our business for good except two things Covid 19 followed by
the new rule for Harbor Craft  proposed by CARB . Shutting down a
business because of a pandemic like COVID 19 no one could have
predicted and it was out of our control , we survived and continue
to operate, and we have had help from the office of Gobiz with
Gants and communication to save small business. So now why the push
to put us out of business ?   The general public who is our
passengers, love the outdoors and fishing once permitted after
COVID shutdowns is a safe outdoor recreation practiced and loved by
so many from all communities and also provides food to feed their
families . Whale Watching allows people to be connected to nature
and is a relaxing, very stress reducing activity enjoyed by
thousands every single day in California , these customers cannot
afford their own private vessels and we are their access.  This new
Carb proposed harbor craft rule will sink my business ,  I believe
that your board and staff do not fully understand what it means to
put all Sportfishing / and Whale Watching boats out of business
along the coast of California . We along with so many  can not
comply with a new proposed rule to make our boats little to no
emissions, we are all for reducing emissions and always have been,
our boats have the most up to date engines that are available to
us, we repower vessels as they become available and also apply for
grants from the South Coast AQMD , this has always been how we
operate. We simply can't comply with the new rule in its current
state. We need unlimited time to comply for when new technology
exists and is available , also we need grant funds to remain
available to us to complete future re-powers and to retrofit if we
can ever even do that, building new vessels is also out of the
question for businesses like ours currently .   As an example we
were told , in some cases vessels would need to be twice as big to
hold the large equipment needed ( namely the Diesel Particulate
Filters ) also requiring us ot limit passengers to 50% and there
would be no place for us to dock such large vessels , besides these
issues  there is a host of safety concerns that come with the new
proposed engines and ruling. Carb staff have said they understand
some boats will be retired , that is a very sad statement, we
believe not some but all boats like ours would be retired  . Our
boats can't just be retired , they have no pension they have no
retirement the boats are the retirement for families like ours .
Everyday it's a struggle we have been dealing with since the onset
of COVID and to disregard those hardships and put this new proposal
on us , does not make sense , this new proposed rule will be
hurting so many communities at a time when California is supposed
to champion small business. It even further does not make sense
especially for the fact that commercial fishing harbor craft get an
unlimited extension, our passengers can not afford a higher ticket
they deserve an extension too ,  we were told that the belief that
our passengers can pay more for tickets was the only reason we were
told that we were not put into that same category with commercial
fishing. Our customers deserve access to affordable boating. We are
offering public access everyday to the great outdoors .  Once you
retire boats you put family businesses like ours out of business .
Please help us to include boats like ours in the commercial fishing
carve out . This carve out allows for extensions while new engines
can be created. Thank you for reading this email.

Donna Kalez
Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching