From Hatch Adventure Travel:
SEATTLE — Three longtime fly-fishing media professionals and avid anglers are behind the launch of a unique, new travel booking agency that offers fishing and adventure tourism experiences to both domestic and international destinations and pays to offset 150 percent of the carbon emissions associated with air travel.
Chad Shmukler, Earl Harper and Chris Hunt are the partners behind Hatch Adventure Travel (HAT), which is already booking clients on adventures to some of the most sought-after angling destinations around the globe. To reduce the environmental impact of air travel associated with the trips the company sells, HAT is footing the bill to offset 150 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted over the course of a plane trip, regardless of the length of the flight or the cost associated with the offset.
“Travel broadens our horizons and fills our souls. It fuels local economies around the globe, providing livelihoods for countless families and individuals. In many rural and remote areas, it drives conservation, by offering alternatives to destructive, extractive industries and supplies incentives to preserve natural environments. But travel also has an impact. And that’s something that even those of us in the travel industry can’t—or at least shouldn’t—ignore,” Shmukler says.
Together, the trio behind Hatch Adventure Travel has over 50 years of travel experience, visiting every continent on the planet except Antarctica in search of angling and other adventures. Through this extensive travel, they’ve seen it all—both the good and the bad—and have chosen to represent only the destinations that offer their clients the best possible experience.
“What makes a destination good or even great isn’t just the quality of the fishing or the view from the porch,” says Shmukler. “It’s about so much more than that. Over the years we’ve learned that the best destinations are almost always borne of the ideals of their owners and operators. Cultural pride which comes through in the guest experience, a dedication to conservation and sustainability, a commitment to providing their guides and staff with fair wages and a healthy work environment, attentiveness and attention to detail—those are the true hallmarks of a great destination,” he added.
Regarding the new agency’s carbon offset program, Hunt notes “I don’t think any of us would be doing this if we couldn’t, at the very least, reduce the impact of our business on the planet. It’s by no means a perfect solution to CO2 emissions, but many of the offsets we purchase go directly to projects on the ground in or near the destinations we serve and the rest go to helping to address the ongoing climate crisis.”
For instance, if a client books a trip to chase permit in Mexico’s famed Ascension Bay, half of the offsets the agency purchases will help fund the Utsil Naj healthy homes program, which helps provide efficient cookstoves to homes throughout the country. Similarly, the carbon offsets HAT purchases for anglers traveling to Argentina will go toward funding renewable energy projects in neighboring Brazil. The other half of the offsets purchased for each trip the agency books will be devoted to GoldStandard’s Climate+ offset, a hybrid fund that helps propel a variety of projects – from clean water access to renewable energy – reaching all corners of the globe. Like all of GoldStandard’s offset programs, the Climate+ fund is an internationally recognized, ISEAL-standardized, voluntary carbon offset program focused on helping to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
“We’re very interested in responsible travel to places anglers want to visit,” Harper says. “It makes sense for anglers who want to fish around the world to give a little bit back to the areas they visit, and the offset is our way of helping them do that.”
Presently, HAT is selling trips to lodges in the United States, Argentina, Chile, Mongolia, Iceland, Greenland, Mexico and the Bahamas. More lodges are coming online in the coming weeks. For more, visit hatch.travel.