Spear Fishing

[Wolverine]

Look ,if you are not Amish or aboriginal and live with none of techno-junk we all have you have 0 room to point any fingers.How much poison is spewed into the environment to produce the computer you are now whining on,how many trees died to make your home,how many hydrocarbons are used to heat and cool that home,how many hydrocarbons are burnt taking you about your daily routine,how many streams are poisoned by the pesticides and nutrient run-off from the food you consume.If you eat meat,where exactly do think it comes from?Ever see a beef feedlot?Thousands of cattle eating and spewing methane into the air as well as effluent into the water table.Pork is the same as well as chicken.Then think of all the grains that have to be grown to feed those animals to a size where someone kills it for you because you don't have the moral courage to admit you are a carnivore.If you don't like spearfishing,fine then don't do it.Animals are animals,they get eaten,get over it.Whether it's a shark, a bear or micro-organisms everything organic goes back into circulation.And yes,properly managed fish populations can come back into enjoy healthy sustainable populations.Examples in my state are the Redfish and the Gulf stock of Groupers.Amazing when restrictions are placed on wanton commercial use fish stocks rebound.If more people killed thier own there would be less bycatch and waste.

Well, at one time, I would have agreed with your statement. I used to be a spear fisherman, but have since hung up my gun. The reason for doing so is that although by myself I do not cause significant damage to a reef, 100 of me every weekend would pretty much wipe out any big fish in the any reef. The point I guess is that we much look at the collective effect of spearfishing rather than what one spear fisherman can do. That's the main problem. IF you really want a challenge, spearfish without scuba. That might make sense.

As to eating fish, I have reduced my intake as well, for the same reason. Overfishing, in both recreational and commercial sense, have stressed out fish stocks to such as extent that they may not recover. If I have to eat fish, I will eat farmed fish. This has abolutely nothing to do with compassion for fish. It is simply to make sure that we continue to have fish in the future: to look at as well as to eat.

 

[Bretagne]

Spear fishing only legal in apnea here. You are not even allowed to have diving tanks on the same boat as a spear fisher.

 

[Mojo Jojo]

that would be more challenging i guess

 

[FredT]

For some species and locations Apnea spearfishing is easier as it's a lot quieter and less gear intensive.
For other species and locations the results of Apnea spearfishing is the same as suicide.

Rules vary all over the world. The avowed target, a sustainable species yield, is the same. The methods to get there via regulation is just different. Sometimes and places the differences in methods are based on culture and historical citizen control/trust methods. Other times and places they are based on infrastructure limits. Usually though it's based on misinformation, assumed general population ignorance of the facts, and what happens to be politically and economically convenient for some population subgroup.

FT

 

[Mojo Jojo]

i guess i don't like killing killing stuff, one time i killed ab ird and felt pretty bad about it

 

[ekarais]

To my understanding there is no difference between hunting in the forest and eat what you hunt or spearfishing and eating your fishes or buying meat or fish from a supermarket. The only thing we have to care about is the law of the nature. Don't take more than you can eat. From this point of view, again there is no difference whether we do spearfishing while skindiving or scubadiving.

There was a comment in a previous similar discussion. If an angler has right to catch fish at 35 meters a diver should have the same right which is possible with scuba only for most of us.

 

[squicker]

I think allowing people on scuba to spearfish and lobster/crayfish is wrong.
1 - Its not really sport, because its not sporting.
2 - Its not sporting because unless the scuba diver is blind he can always get his target.
3 - Using a speargun with scuba is like using an shotgun to hunt your hamster ................................................when its still in its cage.

It would be sporting if there was some risk to the scuba diver, like chumming the water or allowing the divers to remove some of the competitors.

btw if you though that was extreme, you should hear my views on whalers, seal clubbers and taiwanese/japanese trawlers.

Thanksfully using scuba to hunt underwater is still illegal back home.

 

[squicker]

I like the sound of wherever apnea is. Same in south africa. if they catch you with dive gear and spear gear or having divegear and crayfish then they confiscate your boat/car, your catch, you go to jail and you get a fine.

Just about right!

 

[FredT]

i guess i don't like killing killing stuff, one time I killed a bird and felt pretty bad about it

The thing I taught my Scouts, and enforced on all but blood sucking and "vermin" insects like flies and the roaches we brought with us in the gear, was that if they killed something they ate it. If they didn't need it for food and couldn't store it for later it was best to either let it go on it's way or relocate it unharmed to where it's not a problem. This included venomous critters! I did let them cook it if they wanted too though. It's amazing how fast the word gets around after someone has a fried salted slug for breakfast.

There is no reason to ever feel bad about harvesting food in any form. That is the nature of staying alive.

FT

 

[squicker]

Well, at one time, I would have agreed with your statement. I used to be a spear fisherman, but have since hung up my gun. The reason for doing so is that although by myself I do not cause significant damage to a reef, 100 of me every weekend would pretty much wipe out any big fish in the any reef. The point I guess is that we much look at the collective effect of spearfishing rather than what one spear fisherman can do. That's the main problem. IF you really want a challenge, spearfish without scuba. That might make sense.

As to eating fish, I have reduced my intake as well, for the same reason. Overfishing, in both recreational and commercial sense, have stressed out fish stocks to such as extent that they may not recover. If I have to eat fish, I will eat farmed fish. This has abolutely nothing to do with compassion for fish. It is simply to make sure that we continue to have fish in the future: to look at as well as to eat.

I have no problem killing things, I have no problem shooting animals/fish , and would like to shoot a few people too. The difference is in hunting to feed yourself and hunting for sport. If you need to feed yourself/family then use whatever means, but if you are hunting/killing for the enjoyment I thinks thats wrong. But if your going to do it then at least make it a challenge. Give the fish a fair chance, otherwise your just a butcher with aspirations of grandeur.