03 Aug New Sandhills Chapter looking for members in Fayetteville, Southern Pines

By Joe Neely

CCA NC Western Regional Director

CCA NC is starting a new chapter in the Sandhills to recruit members from Fayetteville, Lumberton and Southern Pines to expand our statewide voice in the effort to preserve North Carolina’s estuarine and marine resources.

There are almost 1 million saltwater recreational anglers in North Carolina and many consider themselves conservationists. Only a select few, however, have committed themselves to the preservation of our state’s precious natural resources for future generations by becoming a CCA NC member.

We are an advocacy group for recreational fishermen, and a watchdog for our coastal fisheries, but it goes much deeper than that. Your membership in CCA NC gives a name and a voice to the struggle to protect the future of fishing in North Carolina.

This is a critical time with the future of our coastal fisheries and habitats hanging in the balance.  Southern flounder and blue crab are overfished, native CSMA striped bass stocks are in serious decline, hundreds of sea turtles are allowed to die in gill nets every year  and millions of juvenile fish are caught as by-catch during shrimp trawling in our estuarine waters.

This message is a call to action for you or anyone you know who cares about our North Carolina coast. You don’t have to own a beach house or be a die-hard fisherman to join the fight because our coastal resources belong to you as a resident of this great state. You deserve a say in how they are managed and protected.

If you would like to be a part of bringing CCA NC to the Sandhills area, then please join us for our first chapter committee meeting on Tuesday, September 18^th.  It will be held at the Pechmann Fishing Education Center in Fayetteville at 6:00 pm, located at 7489 Raeford Road. Come learn the issues facing N.C. fisheries, plans for future chapter events in the area, meet some of the CCA NC staff members and the new Sandhills Chapter president, Scott Bebb. Help us get off the ground with strong leadership and community involvement.

Please contact us at our office at 919-781-FISH (3474) or send an email to joe@ccanc.org with any questions or comments. We look forward to seeing you there. And please let us hear from you if you are interested in finding out about how to get more involved with the local chapter where you live.