A SHOCKING TALE Professional fisheries biologists, Skidaway chapter Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) volunteers and Skidaway CCA chapter board member, Rich Hackett, recently created shockwaves in our quiet community, quite literally that is. It was all part and parcel of our annual electrofishing program, one of several science-based survey methods, along with salinity testing and seining, designed to help ensure healthy and growing fish populations in our freshwater lagoons. As the name implies, electrofishing uses electricity to temporarily stun fish so they may be weighed and measured. The process is not harmful to fish, which return to their natural state within a few minutes after being caught. The main purpose for conducting an electrofishing analyses is to determine the health of a lagoon based on predator/prey ratios. In our freshwater lagoons, the main predator species are largemouth bass and black crappie. Prey species include bluegill, redear sunfish, threadfin shad, and gizzard shad. A bass-crowded lagoon, for example, will contain larger numbers of small, skinny bass in the 12–14-inch range, experiencing stunting in their growth. Such waters become bass-crowded due to a lack of bass harvest. Despite this unbalanced state, bass will continue to reproduce and consume all […]
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The January 2022 CCA Meeting discussed National Wildlife Refuges. Below is a YouTube video of the meeting:
CCA Annual Fish Stocking Amber Capps – amberc@landings.org Executive Assistant to the Public Works Director Fishing in our lagoon system has undoubtedly become increasingly popular over the last several years and even more so during these quarantine times! The Skidaway Island Chapter of Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) volunteers have been a long-time partner of the Association who generously provide their time, expertise and donations towards lagoon programs, events, and projects. Over the years, CCA has raised $400,000 in donations which has attributed to the growing number of residents who fish in the Landings’ lagoons. Fish stocking is one of the annual programs that CCA volunteers participate in and fund which typically occurs in the spring or early summer when water temperatures are cooler and fewer predators such as otters and cormorants frequent the lagoons. Last month, a total of 5,500 3-4-inch blue gills were stocked in the following lagoons: 14, 22, 26, 66, 106 and 149. Prior to the selection of lagoons for the fish stocking program, the following programs are completed to collect the appropriate data for stocking: Juvenile Seining – Nets are used to sample species of fish in each lagoon to determine how many young fish are […]
For immediate release Email: twvenker@joincca.org Anglers shortchanged with four-day red snapper season Federal mismanagement virtually eliminates access to popular recreational fishery Continuing a downward spiral in South Atlantic red snapper seasons, NOAA Fisheries has announced a four-day recreational season for 2020. While expectations in March were that the federal agency in charge of the nation’s fisheries would disallow any recreational red snapper season, the move to a four-day season is hardly a victory for anglers who have seen their access to the fishery severely curtailed for the last decade even as the red snapper population expands. “A four-day season is marginally better than a zero-day season, but it is profoundly disappointing that this is the best result available after 10 years of intense scrutiny and federal management. This is certainly not where anglers deserve to be with a fishery that is clearly recovering and expanding,” said Bill Bird, chairman of the CCA National Government Relations Committee. Since 2010, the recreational sector has been allowed to harvest red snapper in South Atlantic federal waters a cumulative total of 37 days despite increasing abundance of fish. In recent years, NOAA Fisheries has maintained that recreational bycatch mortality – red […]
CRD adds two vessels to offshore artificial reefs Brunswick, Ga. (June 5, 2020) The Georgia Department of Natural Resources’s Coastal Resources Division on June 3, 2020, added two new vessels to artificial reefs about 20 miles offshore of St. Catherines Island. (Click here for a video.) Sales of the “Support Fish Habitat” license plate funded the project, along with the Coastal Conservation Association of Georgia. “These vessels will provide essential fish habitat off Georgia’s coast and will eventually become populated with corals, sponges and other marine life,” said Paul Medders, the Artificial Reef, Habitat Enhancement and Boating Access leader for DNR’s Coastal Resources Division . “In about two years, these reefs will become prime fishing spots for offshore anglers, as well as a unique place for SCUBA divers to visit.” The first vessel, an 82-foot shrimp trawl named the Frank and Marie, sank at reef CCA-JL 22 nautical miles east of St. Catherines Island. It rested on the seafloor at 2:40 p.m. in about 64 feet of water. The Frank and Marie joins New York City subway cars, steel structures and other materials at reef CCA-JL. The second vessel, the 180-foot Tangiers Island, sank in 70 feet of water at […]
We were proud to partner on this project with the Coastal Resources Division (CRD). In this video, CRD Marine Biologist Cameron Brinton discusses how biologists and technicians placed more than 3,700 bags of oyster shell along the riverbank in an effort to recruit new, wild oysters. Oyster reefs are essential fish habitat, filter water and help stabilize banks against erosion. Learn more about CRD’s artificial reef program at www.CoastalGaDNR.org/HERU. CRD video by Tyler Jones. Watch the video HERE!