MINNEAPOLIS – FLW Outdoors recently donated $5,000 to help renovate a South Carolina fish hatchery after having organized a major professional bass-fishing tournament in Columbia, S.C. The donation further establishes FLW Outdoors as an organization devoted to giving something back to the communities that host its tournaments. As it has in the past, FLW Outdoors is donating $5,000 at each of its seven Wal-Mart FLW Tour events as well as at a variety of other sanctioned tournaments.
For the 2003 season’s third FLW Tour stop, held on Lake Murray in March, the contribution went to the South Carolina Department of Natural Recourses, which will use the money to renovate the Cheraw State Fish Hatchery production ponds. The department will use the funds to add an electricity line to the six ponds in the hatchery, allowing the ponds to double, possibly even triple, fish production.
“FLW Outdoors’ donation has been a miracle; we have been trying for more than two years to raise the $5,000 it will take to add the electricity,” said Mac Watson, freshwater coordinator for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
The hatchery grows largemouth, smallmouth and striped bass as well as channel catfish, bluegills and sunfish. It produces 1 million to 2 million sport fish annually. Over the last six years, the hatchery has experienced difficulty keeping up with the growth rate of the fish, which created oxygen problems. Electricity will ease the problems by allowing the department of natural resources to run oxygen blowers or aerators to the water.
“The electricity will give us options that we otherwise wouldn’t have,” Watson said. “In the past, we have had oxygen problems and could do nothing about it; now we will be able to run air blowers to the water to keep the fish alive, and at the same time, it will allow an increase in fish production.”
FLW Outdoors remains committed to conservation in 2003 through its partnership with the FishAmerica Foundation, the conservation arm of the American Sportfishing Association. The donations go toward conservation efforts to benefit tournament host sites.
In 2000, FLW Outdoors announced its partnership with the FishAmerica Foundation. Since then, FLW Outdoors has helped to raise more than $400,000 for local conservation projects.
“In partnering with FishAmerica, our goal is to have a positive impact on the fisheries and host cities where our tournaments are held,” said Charlie Hoover, president and CEO of FLW Outdoors. “We always strive to leave our host lakes in better condition than when we arrive for both the current and next generation of anglers. This effort will allow more fish to be available to all anglers on the lakes in South Carolina.”