collecting reef creatures

[JustinW]

I threw away the net a long time ago! If you have a decent pair of gloves then all you need is patience. I usually tickle them out and grab them at the carapace.
I see divers trying to catch lobsters with those useless snares and nets and most destroy more reef than anything. its not hard to catch them by hand and you wont tear up the reef in the process. I rarely use a tickle stick, I like to get positioned where i know im not going to damage the reef then reach in and grab the lobster head first. Always make sure the lobster is legal size before hand and always check it with a guage before you surface. as the second part of your question pull and twist gripping the tail as close to the body as possible the break off a antenna and insert it in the rectum of the lobster after you push it in so far the "poop string" will come out the other end. pull it the rest of the way out and throw him on the grill! good luck and good lobstering!

What exactly are you doing with these lobsters??? Surely you aren't taking them off the reef? "Don't let me catch you taking things off of my reef"

Its not yours to take and it isnt right for you to take advantage of what is there for you to see and enjoy not to destroy.

Thats right, "Its not yours to take and it isnt right for you to take advantage of what is there for you to see and enjoy not to destroy."

The highlight of hipocricy. So please, try to explain your logic to me, its OK for you to legally take lobsters of of a reef, but its not ok for me to legally take a fish or a broken off piece of live rock. I'm not killing it, but you are.

 

[archman]

folks, please calm down with the flames and threats. If the posts don't become more civil, I will most certainly remove them. If you have a personal issue with a poster, take it up with a PM (personal message).

Remember what forum you're in. This is UNDERWATER HUNTING. If you'd like the threads to stray into environmentalism, I'll be more than happy to move it into Ecosystems.

 

[Scubakevdm]

I only take hard corals that I'm going to eat that night.

 

[jonnythan]

As someone who was a fishkeeper for a good long while, I have to say that I admire someone willing to go out and catch their own fish and rock versus buying from a store. It's true that commercial reef fish harvesting results in many more dead in transport than appear in the stores, and a collector taking home a couple of reef fish for an aquarium will treat those fish better and have less impact on the reefs than a harvester collecting and successfully transporting the same number of fish. This is well known in the tropical fish industry. I know several fishkeepers who collect their own fish simply because they are appalled at the environmental damage and death caused by commercial fish harvesters.

 

[H2Andy]

as Archman pointed out, this is the Underwater Hunting forum. from the
Special Rules:

The Underwater Hunting Forum is here to discuss where to hunt, how to hunt, hunting equipment, seafood recipes and hunting adventures. It is not the place for folks who are not underwater hunters (or at least have an interest in becoming underwater hunters). If you're here to complain about spearfishing or lobstering or any other kind of hunting underwater you've come to the wrong place.

http://www.scubaboard.com/t61428-special-rules.html

so, please, no discussion of the merits, values, etc. of collecting practices.

you are, of course, more than welcome to start a thread elswhere discussing
that (just PM a Mod and we can set it up for you)

 

[CBulla]

That being said, whats the most interesting LEGAL fish you have in your tank?

 

[H2Andy]

my tank runneth over

 

[archman]

That being said, whats the most interesting LEGAL fish you have in your tank?

I kept a pinfish once. It was the biggest eating machine I've ever seen. Eventually it got too big, and I had to release it back into the wild.

 

[CBulla]

In high school I used to have a fabulous saltwater tank that was basically stocked with the small odds and ends things I pulled up in my Stone Crab traps or cast net. A small octopus, a few small crown conchs, a star fish, green backs, pin fish, shiners, a few small mullet, lots of shrimp cycled through that tank, some live rock that was from right at my dock, a porcupine fish that was about as big as my thumb, etc... It was a perfect representation of what I lived in and around - mangroves and grass flats. When it came time for me to leave for the military, all the animals were turned loose again - many of which still live around the dock today... well, at least their descendants!

 

[JustinW]

I have tried keeping turban snails from monterey in my tropical tanks, they would live about a month and thats its, assuming the temperature differences were too much for them for an extended period of time. They live in the tide pools here and generally in the summer the tide pools get up to 80 degrees. Fall temps in the bay can reach 63 or even 65 on rare occasions. I keep my aquarium temps at about 68-72 and thought that might work. For now, no more temperates in the tropical tank, temperature differentials are just too great. I however have thought of converting a larger tank I have to a temperate tank, perhaps i can harvest my abalone during the season and have fresh abalone all year long.