December 2025

CCA Texas 2025 Habitat and Project Funding Recap

John Blaha

Cultch deployment on CoL. CCA Texas has advocated for the expansion of the Certificate of Location program up and down the Texas Coast. By giving the commercial industry the opportunity to expand and create their personal leases for harvest, the ultimate goal is to greatly reduce the pressure on public reefs. As part of the new regulations surrounding CoLs, these sites can also now be built as Conservation sites and be protected from harvest by legislative action.

Coastal Conservation Association Texas (CCA Texas) Annual State Board meeting in February started 2025 off with a monumental commitment to Texas’s coastal resources. At the annual State Board meeting, the board approved $4,458,928 in funding for conservation efforts along the Texas coast. This funding will support a range of initiatives, including oyster license buyback, fish tagging research, habitat restoration, and coastal educational outreach programs. In summary, the funding included:

$1.0 million – Funding allocated to support oyster license buyback efforts, which will be facilitated by Texas Parks and Wildlife. Round nine of the buyback efforts resulted in 112 of the 115 interested offers with signed contracts, reducing the total number of oyster licenses in Texas by 20%; an enormous step towards ensuring a more sustainable future for our bays and estuaries. The contributions of CCA Texas, Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, and private individuals made this accomplishment possible.
$588,000 - Funding to support tarpon tagging efforts led by the Gulf Research Institute for Highly Migratory Species (GRIHMS) at Texas A&M University – Galveston. This funding will enable a five-year expansion of GRIHMS' ongoing research into the life history and migration ecology of tarpon.
$101,152 – Funding to further support the citizen tagging partnership between CCA Texas and the Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation at the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Harte Research Institute.
$50,000 – Funding to the Harte Research Institute to help quantify illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico.
$125,000 – Funding for an oyster education program at the Texas Surf Conservancy.
$24,776 – Funding for three educational seagrass billboards along busy coastal highways, and
$20,000 – Funding to sponsor four sporting clay fundraising events in partnership with Operation Game Thief, Texas’s Wildlife Crime-Stoppers Program
$1.0 million – Funding for oyster restoration project with Matagorda Bay Foundation in Carancahua Bay. **Funded from the CCA Texas Oyster Restoration $5.0 million commitment made in August 2023.
$1.0 million – Funding for oyster restoration project at Ayers Reef in Ayers Bay led by Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program (CBBEP). This $1,000,000 contribution includes $177,978 in funding from local community foundations. **Funded from the CCA Texas Oyster Restoration $5.0 million commitment made in August 2023.
$150,000 – Funding for the Nueces Bay Delta Marsh restoration effort led by CBBEP.
$200,000 – Funding for the Gordy Marsh restoration effort in Trinity Bay, led by the Galveston Bay Foundation (GBF).
$200,000 – Funding for the Oyster Lake Shoreline Protection Phase IV effort led by GBF. The contribution of $200,000 to the Oyster Lake Shoreline Protection effort now brings CCA Texas support for this multi-phase project to $630,000.

The funding effort at the 2025 Annual State Board meeting was the most ever funded in a single meeting. In addition, and except for $152,000, every dollar funded was raised at local chapter banquets.

During the August 2025 Executive Board meeting, the Executive Board continued to fund important projects and support. At the August meeting, just over $1.2 million for habitat, research and Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) Game Warden support was funded. This funding included:

$525,000 – Funding for Serpulid reef restoration and research efforts in Baffin Bay with Harte Research Institute’s (HRI) Coastal Conservation and Restoration Lab. This funding will be over a three-year period and include initial surveys, design, permitting, construction and post monitoring.
$625,000 – Funding for continued support of Harte Research Institute’s (HRI) Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation (CSSC). This funding will be distributed at $125,000 for five years for the efforts that provide critical and important science that can be applied to immediate management needs for species that are being studied.
$66,660 – Funding for Region IV Wardens. This funding will be for new power and engine conversions for five enforcement vessels in Region IV area of the Texas coast.

Closing the year out, the CCA Texas Management Committee met in late October and approved funding from the CCA Texas Oyster Restoration Funds for two more oyster restoration efforts. These projects are both Certificate of Location (CoL) projects that will create conservation reefs. Each project has approved funding of $500,000 ea. The first is a 10-acre site in Mesquite Bay near Ranch House Reef and will be permitted by The Gulf Trust. The second CoL is a 10-acre site in East Matagorda Bay, west of the Oyster Farms, and will be permitted by the Matagorda Bay Foundation. Although the East Matagorda Bay site is in open harvest waters, both sites are protected by statute and will be designated conservation reefs. Both projects are in the early planning stages and will have to go through the CoL permitting process and conditionally approved by TPWD, and eventually permitted by USACE and leased by the Texas General Land Office.

2025 has been a tremendously successful year and this success does not happen without great local chapter support and partners that included Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program, Galveston Bay Foundation, Matagorda Bay Foundations and other like organizations. CCA Texas funded over $6.8 million in habitat, research and conservation efforts in 2025. CCA Texas is excited to bring the year to a close and use the success of the year to move many more conservation efforts forward in the future.

Coastal Conservation Association Texas (CCA Texas) is a non-profit marine conservation organization comprised of tens of thousands of recreational anglers and coastal outdoor enthusiasts. Founded in 1977, CCA started in the great state of Texas and has grown to include state chapters along the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Seaboard and Pacific Coast. The stated purpose of CCA is to advise and educate the public on the conservation of marine resources. The objective of CCA is to conserve, promote and enhance the present and future availability of these coastal resources for the benefit and enjoyment of the general public.

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