CCA – September Meeting/Seminar Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, one of the largest near-shore “live-bottom” reefs of the southeastern United States, will be the focus of the CCA of Skidaway’s June meeting and seminar to be held on Monday, September 14, at St. Peter’s Church beginning at 7:00 pm. Featured speaker Cathy Sakas, a professional interpretive naturalist and founding chair of the Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, will discuss how the Reef relates to Coastal Georgia. Gray’s Reef is currently the only protected natural reef area on the continental shelf off the Georgia coast and one of only a few natural marine protected areas in the ocean between Cape Hatteras, NC and Cape Canaveral, FL. The approximately 22 square mile sanctuary (about 14,000 acres, located 16 miles east of Sapelo Island between Savannah and Brunswick) of Gray’s Reef is just a small part of the U.S. territorial Atlantic Ocean, yet its value as a natural marine habitat is recognized nationally and internationally. While direct access to the reef requires experience in open-ocean diving, the Sanctuary is popular with recreational anglers, boaters and more experienced divers. Cathy Sakas’s lifelong love of the ocean began at age three when a huge […]
Monthly Archives: August 2015
COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA SUPPORTS SEATROUT REGULATION CHANGE The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is holding hearings regarding a proposal to change the minimum possession size for spotted seatrout from 13 inches to 14 inches. The attached announcement from DNR explains the proposed change. CCAGA supports this proposed rule change. Along with our support however is a strong request that the Georgia DNR continue to monitor the abundance of seatrout in Georgia waters so the effect of this rule change may be measured in the next few years. The Coastal Resources Division of DNR has conducted a Sportfish Population Health Assessment each year for a number of years. This information plus other abundance data exist so baseline data is available which can be compared with future fish abundance measures. It is CCAGA’s position that continued regular stock assessment for seatrout is essential for proper management of this resource.