Eye Strike Fishing is very proud to announce our involvement in a new initiative that will positively impact our fisheries for years to come. Joel LeVine of Redfin Charters spearheaded this effort in partnership with ourselves and Z-Man Fishing. What it is, is a pathway to direct funds to conservation and sustainability projects through a non-profit, tax deductible organization. This is the Community and Professional Response Initiative (CPR Initiative), which is a non-profit fund to collect donations toward certain projects. This is in contrast to sending a donation to, say SCDNR or other government organizations, and having it go into a general fund. In our case, your funds go directly to the cause we are focusing on.
Why are we doing this? Because we have heard from others, and thought ourselves, that we would be willing to pay extra to fund something such as, increasing the numbers of stocked fish in our waters – or wanting to do something to help our recovery from our historic freeze. Now, we have a way to do so!
Project ReSpeck
Our first project is called Project ReSpeck. It is aimed at helping our spotted seatrout recover as fast as possible. In many discussions with the Waddell Mariculture Center and SCDNR it was determined that their most pressing need is to fund an additional spawning tank at SCDNR’s Fort Johnson Facility. These tanks run $25,000 and are capable of spawning 600-700,000 eggs a season. These eggs are then taken to Waddell to grow and eventually be released into our waters. Eye Strike, Redfin, and Z-Man have seeded this fund with an initial 10% ($2,500) and will also be donating a portion of our sales to the fund.
How can you help? You can donate directly to the cause by going to http://projectrespeck.com which will take you directly to the CPR Initiative’s fund page. After you enter your information and send in a donation, you will receive a donor letter in the mail to be used for your tax deduction. Please allow a couple weeks to receive it. Let’s raise these funds and let DNR purchase a tank. This will greatly increase their capacity for growing fish to stock. It’s a great cause! Thanks in advance!
The Future
Once we have funded this project, we will direct the CPR Initiative to another cause, to be determined. However, our mission states that the funds must be used to benefit the SC coastal estuaries, so it’s focused on what matters most to us.