No more spearfishing in south Florida?

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@CuzzA
I have now actually read most of the points made on the webside. I can take down every single point they are making.
If you're really interested in this, pm me your email adress and I'll go through every point for you.
I really drives me nuts that people believe stuff like this. It's propaganda and they even use POS neo nazi websites as sources. They're lying to you man.
 
From a horses mouth? This is were you get your info from? The 10 point on the website are a joke. Most of the stuff they claim is not even true and I could prove it to you. But you would have to read more than 10 points on a website.
Do yourself a favor and buy a book instead of reading website like these. if you really get your info from site like this, I feel sorry for you.

Greece is not broke because of democratic socialism. But hey, that's just a fact, so why would you care.
Good luck with our socialism? Canada has democratic socialism too and they have a higher standard of living than the US.

Bennno, I thought we were done.... Again I disagree and thank you for the insults. :wink: You should not get all your info from one source. A book would be one source and perhaps twisting reality to favor the authors view. One should gather info from multiple sources and then apply their own creative thought to come to a conclusion. In other words, read through the ********.

As far as democratic socialism. Well, let's just say you can't put lipstick (democratic) on a pig (socialism) and call it a beautiful Florida Hogfish. :wink:

greece socialism - Google Search
 
Back to the subject of the thread:

So here we have a prima facie case of a Non-Government Organization (NGO) operating behind the scenes and agitating through a labyrinth of organizations that few have ever heard about: "Our Florida Reefs," hosted by the "Southeast Florida Reef Initiative" (SEFRI), working through "Community Working Groups," and the "Florida Coral Reef Conservation Program," and funded through the "Coral Reef Conservation Program" (CRCP) of the NOAA and "Florida Department of Environmental Protection" with additional in-kind support provided by the many (my italics, not theirs) partner agencies and organizations that comprise SEFRI...in the absence if any public consensus, outcry for change, or even a long and public debate, working to bring about a rule that would forever end spearfishing while scuba diving in Southeast Florida.

On top of that, the only reason any of us knows about this is because we were alerted by a news story and prompt by DEMA.

Shadowy organizations? I'll let the reader decide who's paranoid, or who's deluded.

As for who these people are? No, they're not "illuminate." But they are bien pensants, the "right thinkers," the "do gooders," the people who believe by right of their education, position, and status, that they know better than we do:

http://ourfloridareefs.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/CWG-Yearbook_updated-1.28.16.pdf

Excellent point.
 
No, Greece is broke because all the Gyro venders moved to NY.
 
No, Greece is broke because all the Gyro venders moved to NY.

And Tarpon Springs, FL... The city just north of me. Man, I love a good Gyro. You just gotta watch some of those guys, they can be way too liberal with the tzatziki sauce. Nobody wants a soggy pita. :wink:

@Bennno we'll take this conversation private.
 
@Bennno we'll take this conversation private.
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I thought it was common sense that selectively killing the biggest, healthiest fish on a reef is BAD given you are taking out the best breeding stock. I think undercurrent last month had a article that an illegal spearfisher took out all of a certain species on a reef a few months back. One man's selfishness destroys the enjoyment of thousands.

As the flaming wars rage on and destroy an otherwise interesting topic, I'm still waiting for someone to present hard evidence* that spearfishing can be done in an environmentally sound way.

I stated twice before and will repeat myself: I have a genuine interest in getting to know successful experiences in that regard. I don't like spearfishing but I don't think it will go away, so would like to understand how exactly it can be done without destroying everything around it.


*hard evidence to me doesn't include "opinions" nor "self-evident truths" by spearos, sorry. It's more like real world experience, surveys, scientific peer reviewed papers etc. Anyone?
 
There is no data for the South Florida Fishery in terms of spearfishing on scuba. They don't know. And that's the problem with this whole proposal.

Now, in a nut shell, about all the information we have is the FFWC uses statisticians to determine quotas for each species. A portion of that is given to the commercial guys and a portion is given to the recreational guys. Once the quota has been met. The fishery is shut down or it's shut down during certain times like spawning, for example.

There's not much of a challenge with the commercial quotas because everything gets reported. There is more of a challenge for the recreational quota because anglers are not required to report their catch. This is all changing though as you can see from the earlier Gulf Reef Survey link I posted. We're also seeing FWC officers collecting data now. This is something new.

So, again, I'm not aware of any study. I'm not aware of any numbers of spearfisherman. I do know however there are far more freedive spearfisherman and hook and line fisherman than scuba.

I'm curious why you're against spearfishing? Do you buy seafood at the grocery or restaurant?
 
It's pretty obvious that commercial fishing….long lines, gill nets, high tech tracking and netting methods of massive schools etc etc, is the problem.

And the way to stop commercial fishing is through successful, sustainable, commercial aquaculture. Imagine if we still commercially harvested wild berries, squirrel, deer, nuts etc etc from the wild. This is what's happening in the sea. And just as seasonal takes on land animals has proven sustainable, so will it be with recreational fishing and spearfishing once we stop the high tech, extremely efficient, commercial fishing.
When we can produce fish cheaper than boats can go out and harvest fish, it will stop. It already happened with shrimp back in 2001 or so. But the US government stepped in and subsidised the trawlers in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hunters on land and in the sea are the best source of information on what's going on with the populations. They contribute more information for true conservation because they spend the time in the wild.

Spearfishing is hard. Scuba or free diving. Fish are smart and learn. I know where there are lots of fish. If I'm lucky enough to get a few nice snappers from Spot A, I can't go back for a month or more because the fish know. I won't be able to get close.

The key, other than stopping commercial fishing, is regulation. Licensing, seasonal no takes time during spawning and game wardens at boat ramps checking catches.
 
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https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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