Coastal Conservation Association (CCA)

Coastal Conservation Association Expands
to Pacific Northwest
Decision creates coast-to-coast conservation association

HOUSTON, TX –Coastal Conservation Association, the nation’s largest marine resource conservation group, announced today that the organization will expand its operations to the U.S. Pacific Northwest to address a variety of conservation issues, including problems within the salmon fishery.

The announcement came as CCA celebrates its 30-year anniversary and follows a vote of the association’s national board of directors to commit CCA’s strength and experience to the U.S. Pacific Northwest. CCA currently maintains chapters in 15 coastal states along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

“This is a very exciting time for CCA,” said David Cummins, president of CCA National. “There is an enthusiasm and energy in the Pacific Northwest for getting things done, and we believe we will be making a significant, beneficial impact on how fisheries are managed in the region in the very near future.”

The creation of CCA Pacific Northwest (CCA PNW) will bring CCA’s extensive experience in grassroots networks, lobbying and fisheries management to the region’s contentious salmon issues, a long a source of frustration for Pacific Northwest anglers.

“We restored a run of Coho salmon to a creek that Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife declared dead only to see commercial fisheries cripple it again,” said Gary Loomis, founder of G. Loomis Rods and a key figure in the effort to bring CCA to the Northwest. “In 1996, when we started, there were 32 salmon in that creek. We brought it back to 16,000 spawning, native fish. Two years ago, commercial gillnetters targeted that run of salmon. Only 6,100 made it back. They targeted them again this year. That was when we decided we needed to try and bring CCA to the Northwest to help us stop the overharvest of our native and wild fish runs.”

The new founders of CCA PNW are already actively recruiting members and leaders to head-up this effort.

“We needed an organization with proven success affecting policy change in fisheries,” said Jon Bial, another organizer of CCA PNW. “We believe the strengths of CCA, coupled with the passion of Pacific Northwest anglers, is the best way to achieve our goals for a healthy salmon fishery for generations to come.”

CCA is the largest marine resource conservation group in the country, with more than 90,000 members in state chapters along all three coasts.

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