About CCA & CCA Virginia
     CCA Story        CCA Virginia Story

National CCA Story

Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) is an organization of strong state chapters comprised of avid recreational fishermen who have banded together to address conservation issues nationally and within their respective states.

The outdoor sports enthusiasts and conservationists who make up the organization recognize that only a concerted, ongoing effort of major proportions will save the natural resources of our coastal waters from certain depletion or destruction. They are dedicated to preventing that from happening through programs of education, legislation and restoration.

The group had its beginning in 1977 in Texas, where CCA Texas was formed by concerned anglers who were alarmed by declining fish populations. They were made painfully aware of the inherent dangers brought on by dramatically increased commercial fishing pressure and from growing numbers of recreational anglers.

CCA swept across the Gulf States in eight years: First to Alabama (1982) and Louisiana (1984), then to Mississippi and Florida (1985). The Atlantic coast presence of CCA Florida meant a surge up the east coast, where CCA chapters were formed in South Carolina (1986), Georgia (1987), Virginia and North Carolina (1989). This expansion continued northward with the formation of CCA state chapters in Maine (1994), Massachusetts and Maryland (1995), Connecticut and New York (1996) and New Hampshire (1998).

In coastal state capitals from the Gulf to the north-Atlantic , CCA chapters are highly regarded watchdogs of fishing activities. They are also valued as cooperative partners with state wildlife and fisheries agencies in developing programs and legislation that protect and enhance the marine resource. Every state has enjoyed its successes and each has endured disappointments. But none has given the first indication of letting up in the fight to return a wholesome coastal fishery to the recreational fishing public and future generations.

Nationally, CCA has led or shared in the efforts to stop the disastrous netting of redfish in the federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the overfishing of kingfish. Another CCA success was the key role played in obtaining a Federal Management Plan for Atlantic billfish. CCA has played an important part in the ongoing recovery of striped bass and the elimination of destructive fishing gear. The organization continues to focus on the Magnuson Act, to ensure that conservation concerns are appropriately addressed. The involvement of CCA in the Fishery Management Councils and the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission remains a high priority.

CCA and its state organizations are engaged in hundreds of different programs and projects relating to conservation at all times. These programs and projects include scientific studies, scholarship funding, artificial reefs, hatcheries, contaminant studies, hydrology studies, fresh water inflows, support of local enforcement agencies and many others. But their sights are all trained on the same overall objectives: First, protect the resource, then improve the current and future fishing for everyone.

A Few Facts About The Coastal Conservation Association

• CCA has more than 164 local chapters of organized anglers throughout 15 coastal states with a combined membership greater than 75,000. CCA's 60 state and national staff members coordinate more than 400 chapter events and fundraisers each year.
• CCA has more than 80 state and national committees, 150 national board directors, more than 900 board members - on local, state, and national levels - and more than 5,000 active volunteers contributing to the organization's daily development and growth.
• CCA members include a former U.S. President, former Cabinet members, Congressmen, Senators, ICCAT Commissioners, Fishery Management Council members, Governors, State Legislators, and state and federal fisheries managers.
• CCA has a registered lobbyist in Washington D.C. and has been active in every national debate on fisheries since 1984. We currently retain 17 state and federal professional lobbyists.
• CCA makes decisions from the bottom up, involving our membership in all regional and national policy positions. We operate as a three-tiered organization - local, state, and national.
• CCA is recognized by fisheries managers as instrumental in the recovery of redfish, king mackerel, Spanish mackerel, speckled trout, striped bass, Gulf grouper, and Atlantic weakfish.
• CCA helped establish gamefish status for billfish and redfish, net bans in four states, and the prohibition of many destructive gear types. We have been instrumental in establishing far-reaching conservation legislation on both the state and federal levels.
• CCA has a legal defense fund that has been used to defend net bans and bycatch reduction devices, support pro-fisheries legislation, and enforce existing regulations.
• CCA has an award winning national publication, Tide magazine, and a special youth publication, Rising Tide.
• CCA has an annual audit and tax return prepared by a nationally recognized public accounting firm.
• CCA has a proven methodology for tracking membership and a nationally recognized retention rate.

CCA Virginia Story

Coastal Conservation Association Virginia (CCAVa) is the Virginia state chapter of the CCA. CCAVa concerns itself primarily within conservation issues within the Virginia waters of the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic. CCAVa exists to conserve, protect, and restore the wild fish species that frequent Virginia's tidal waters.

The earliest roots of CCA in Virginia were planted with the founding of the Conservation Council of Angling Clubs, according to Carl Herring, one of that group's founders and its first president. The council came together initially to turn away such threats as the movement of commercial trawlers into close proximity of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to take advantage of the artificial reef the bridge provides. That early 1970s group in turn became the Virginia Federation of Anglers, which in 1989 became the Atlantic Coast Conservation Association in tandem with the Gulf Coast Conservation Association. The transition, said Herring, was an easy one due to the greater strength in numbers it offered across many states from Virginia to Texas.

Herb Gordon also was key in the early foundation of CCA Virginia. Gordon, also a member of the CCAC and the Virginia Federation of Anglers, joined the fight against over-harvesting by commercial fishermen when commercial boats based in Florida arrived in the Chesapeake Bay to harvest big blue fish for export into South America. Using deep-running gill nets, the 110-foot boats managed to wipe out the blue fish stock, according to Gordon. The state managed to place a ban on this type of fishing after two months, but the damage was already done. This 1982 event set the precedent for protection of fisheries and sport fishing in the Chesapeake Bay. Gordon, too, played key leadership roles in the organizations forming prior, and leading up to today's Coastal Conservation Association of Virginia. Then Virginia Governor Chuck Robb appointed him to the state's Gill Net Advisory Commission. Additionally, he served as the last president of the Conservation Council of Angling Clubs, and first president of the Atlantic Coast Conservation Association, which combined with the Gulf Coast Conservation Association in 1997 to become today's CCA.

CCA's next step in Virginia was to push the Virginia legislature to move trawlers that were depleting the Chesapeake Bay's flounder population, outside a three-mile boundary off shore. As Gordon remembered, "We did a lot of work in the early days. It was really tough." The hardest part of the work was gaining the respect of the Virginia legislature, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission in the face of vehement opposition from commercial fishermen. "We made a lot happen. We don't have half the problems we used to have," he added. But, Gordon pointed out, the struggle continues.

"We've fought the menhaden battle for 20 years now," Gordon continued, referring to the effort to curtail wholesale harvest of menhaden, the most preferred meal of the coveted striped bass, or rockfish, as it is known in the Chesapeake. " I hope we can curtail the Bay harvest of menhaden in my lifetime. And I'd like to see more control over gill netting."

CCA, by the way, is credited by fisheries managers as having been instrumental in the recovery of the striped bass, as well as the redfish (or red drum), king mackerel, Spanish mackerel, speckled trout, Gulf grouper, the Atlantic weakfish. The Virginia chapter was an early proponent of both menhaden restrictions and salt-water fishing licenses.

Richard Welton, another early leader in CCAVa now serves as the State Executive Director. He recalls the 1994 state recreational salt water fishing survey-a major tool in the fight to maintain balance between commercial and recreational fishermen and the natural resource they both seek. According to Welton, the survey, funded by revenues from salt-water recreational fishing licenses, brought to light the fact that recreational fishing was a $477 million industry in Virginia, supporting 11,000 full-time jobs. Commercial fishing actually drove less benefit for the state, providing $465 million that year-with a major portion of that figure made up by the harvest of menhaden, crabs, oysters and scallops. This major discovery-the first solid data on the economic benefits of recreational fishing-- led to greater recognition of sport fishing as a solid economic benefit in need of protection from commercial over-harvest. The CCA in Virginia has continued to push this concept.

Growth in the state organization came in the form of local chapters. Virginia Beach was first, in 1989, followed by Eastern Shore and Central (Richmond) that same year; Peninsula began in 1992; Fredericksburg and Piedmont in Charlottesville in 1998; and Southwest and Northern Virginia in 1999. Each local chapter is key in driving membership, funding, and public awareness of concerns regarding the state's natural resources.

In our state capitol in Richmond, CCAVa is a highly regarded watchdog of fishing activities. We also work side-by-side with Virginia's state wildlife and fisheries agencies in developing programs and legislation that protect and enhance the marine resource.

On the educational and recreational level, several of our local chapters provide underprivileged children with opportunities to get out and enjoy learning to fish. Every August since 1995, Peninsula Chapter has provided an annual fishing clinic for 250 children at risk, in which each child is given a rod and reel, small tackle box, tee shirt and lunch, as well as instruction from CCA members at the James River Pier in Newport News. Children are able to experience a great new activity while learning about conservation and responsible use of our natural resources. Tidewater Chapter provides underprivileged children from Southside Hampton Roads with the same opportunity each August at Lynnhaven Pier on the Chesapeake Bay.

Central and Tidewater both sponsor wildly popular Rockfish tournaments each fall, with as many as 200 and more boats participating. Proceeds go to efforts to protect and enhance the fisheries both locally and nationally. The Piedmont Chapter provides a fly fishing tournament out of Gwynn's Island each year as well.

Fund-raising banquets have become a major part of CCAVa's efforts across most local chapters. These events are solid sources of new members, increased revenues for the CCA's causes, and just plain fun.

The Virginia Chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association has been decades in the making. Recreational fishermen here and across the nation owe a debt of thanks to the efforts of the early CCAVa leaders for their efforts to save the wonderful natural resources offered by the Chesapeake Bay.

The fight, however, has only just begun. With the new Millennium, CCAVa will continue to grow stronger, standing watch against wanton destruction of our natural fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Most important to our efforts, as Carl Herring put it, is the constant vigilance against the over-harvesting of the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic fisheries. Being prepared in terms of membership levels and financial strength, and maintaining the communication regarding the organization's priorities across that membership is key in the continued fight to conserve our fisheries.

CCA VA Time Line

• 1989: Virginia joins CCA as ACCA Virginia (Atlantic Coast Conservation Association)
• 1989: ACCA Virginia pushes successfully to move flounder trawl boats out three miles from the coast.
• 1990: ACCA Virginia defeats attempts to exempt pound netters from minimum size limits on gray trout and flounder.
• 1991: ACCA Virginia gets minimum size and bag limits on cobia, amberjack, Spanish mackerel, and king mackerel for commercial and recreational fishermen.
• 1992: ACCA Virginia helps pass marking requirements for gill nets.
• 1993: ACCA Virginia pushes successfully for the state to establish a salt water fishing license.
• 1993: ACCA Virginia pushes successfully for the state to create a limited entry plan for commercial fishing of black drum.
• 1993: ACCA Virginia requests and receives funding for economic impact study of recreational fishing.
• 1994: ACCA Virginia supports shark plan that prohibits long lines in Virginia waters.
• 1995: ACCA Virginia is successful in getting minimum size, bag limit and commercial quota for speckled trout.
• 1995: ACCA Virginia gets a commercial quota for blue fish.
• 1996: ACCA Virginia backs a bag limit on recreational and commercial hook and line spadefish.
• 1997: ACCA becomes the Coastal Conservation Association, creating CCA Virginia.
• 1997: CCA Virginia helps pass legislation that designates a recreational fishing seat on the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
• 1998: CCA's Atlantic Coast states form a staff position to monitor the activities of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Council and the numerous management boards responsible for individual species management.
• 1998: CCA Virginia defeats attempts to prematurely open commercial shad fishing.
• 1999: CCA Virginia helps eliminate kill citations on black and red drum.
• 1999: CCA Virginia is instrumental in turning back attempts to allow gill netting of striped bass along the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

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