The next time you slice your drive into a nearby lake, instead of stomping around and cussing like a baby, just take a breath and realize you may be helping aquatic life.
According to the Oct. 2012 issue of the North American Journal of Aquaculture (NAJA), golf courses that use circular rearing tanks to maintain a health fish population in their ponds and lakes stumbled on a unique use for all those floating Titleists.
The tanks are made to allow water to enter in a circular flow pattern, which then exits out through fine-meshed bottom screens that allows waste (i.e. fish turds) to exit with the water, while at the same time keeping fish from escaping. Unfortunately, something called the “maximum velocity” used to clean the tanks can harm the fish. I’m not sure what maximum velocity refers to, but then again I’m not a bowler.
Turns out when a bunch of golf balls get stuck in the rearing tanks, scientists noticed the balls would roll around the top of the screens during cleaning and helped break down fish excrement. The balls also prevented fish from being injured by the cleaning process.
So, for all of you golfing anglers out there (the kind that golf and fish, not fish for golf balls), each errant drive could help your next catch.
