An alumnus is donating part of the earnings from his home business to the
North Carolina State University physical and mathematical sciences college.

Juan Chaves earned his master's degree through the department of marine,
earth and atmospheric sciences in 2002.

He now owns RedHotFlies, a company that sells hand-made fishing flies on the
Internet. 

A fishing enthusiast and environmentalist, Chaves thought it was important
to give something back to the fishing industry, and therefore decided to
donate 10 percent of his company's earnings to fisheries research at NCSU.

Chaves graduated from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1992 and joined
the Peace Corps, working for two years as a Marine Fisheries Research
Officer in Tuvalu, near Fiji.

His interest in marine research did not stop there, however. After the Peace
Corps, Chaves worked with fisheries in Alaska, the Bahamas, Fiji, New
Zealand and Virginia.

In 2000 Chaves came to the university as a graduate student. He conducted
his graduate research on the soft-shell blue crab and graduated in 2002.

After receiving his master's, Chaves worked as a technician for the NCSU
Department of Zoology at the Center for Marine Science and Technology.

It was then that Chaves decided to create his own business, RedHotFlies.

"I have always wanted to own my own business. This is something that
combines my hobby with my educational and career experience," Chaves said.

Through the Web site, Chaves sells dozens of different kinds of fishing
flies, all of which he makes by hand.

The site features articles about fishing experiences and information about
the flies that work best for catching certain kinds of fish, as well as
photographs from fishermen who want to show off their latest catch.

Since its inception, his business has steadily increased. "I've sold them
everywhere -- North Carolina, California, Virginia -- but it's a daily job
to make [the business] grow," Chaves said.

Something that makes Chaves' business unique is the fact that he donates a
portion of his proceeds to research that directly supports his industry.
Dave Eggleston, an associate professor in the department of marine, earth
and atmospheric sciences, is one of the people whose research benefits most
from Chaves' contributions.

Funding from private sources such as Chaves' business "removes some of the
funding constraints" that can hamper research, according to Eggleston.

Eggleston also said he hopes that other businesses will follow suit on
Chaves' business model.

Areas of commerce he thinks would particularly benefit from this kind of
business arrangement include the camping, mountain-biking and hunting
industries.

"[Outdoor recreation industries] have a vested interest in the long-term
sustainability of the resource their business involves," Eggleston said.

Chaves asserted that the promotion of marine sustainability should be a
strong impetus for fishermen to choose his product over the products of
other companies.

"If we donate money to fisheries research ... fisheries management can
improve and there will be more fish in the sea to be caught. The better the
fishing is, the more people are going to enjoy it, the more people will get
into it and the more business we'll do," Chaves said.