Spear Fishing

[FredT]

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.

We loose several scuba divers to fish every year while they are hunting on the Gulf of Mexico oil rigs. ANY fish over about 20 pounds can kill a diver wheither he's fishing apnea or scuba!

Your other assumptions are absolutely not correct, but you knew that anyway. The discussion is about the "right" to harvest, not the fact that it's a lot more sporting to get within a very few feet of a large fish, then hit it with a shaft where you can get it to the surface in a weightless environment, than it is to run a purse seine about them or sit on deck where you can plant your feet against the gunwhale and haul them up on a line.

Brit legacy countries tend to limit method and tackle/weaponry, not directly limit take. They also tend to be a bit more fished out overall. The US generally limits take numbers and minimum size, not method. Our fish stocks are building. You choose.

 

[Hank49]

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.

As I stated earlier, I believe that over spear fishing can clean out some species, like groupers, jacks...more or less permanent residents of a certain reef, and I don't think it should be done at premier dive sites where people go to dive and see lots of fish.
HOWEVER, I totally disagree with your above statement that spear fishing is not sporting. I have been on hunts for dog tooth tuna and large snappers on atholls with straight wall drop offs....it is risky and extremely "sporting". Spear a large fish...say 30 lbs..in open, blue water and try to reel him in a put him on a stringer. It's hard. You're watching your depth, air, deco time, the line the fish is running around with that may wrap around you if you're not careful.....it's big game hunting and YOU may end up the prey. Hank

 

[squicker]

Cool I love a spirited debate. I suppose it comes down to definition of sport and extreme sport.

Quote - 'As I stated earlier, I believe that over spear fishing can clean out some species, like groupers, jacks...more or less permanent residents of a certain reef'

How could this happen when your limiting the take on fish and everyone who spears there is doing it on lung power, their bottom time at 20 metres is minimal unless they really train hard. If I dont think I can kill the fish with 1 shot and then get it to the surface then i dont take the shot. If im going to do something, I want to be the best I can be at it, and using scuba would just make it unrewarding.

 

[Hank49]

Quote - 'As I stated earlier, I believe that over spear fishing can clean out some species, like groupers, jacks...more or less permanent residents of a certain reef'

How could this happen when your limiting the take on fish and everyone who spears there is doing it on lung power, their bottom time at 20 metres is minimal unless they really train hard. If I dont think I can kill the fish with 1 shot and then get it to the surface then i dont take the shot. If im going to do something, I want to be the best I can be at it, and using scuba would just make it unrewarding.

How could this happen? It was in a country where regulations are not enforced. We had a nice little spot off a little island that we named "Jack Rock". There were always a few Giant Trevallis and snappers there not to mention a grouper or two. A friend of mine, and a few friends of his who were very good shots found it and within two months we renamed it "No Jack Rock". They were gone.

 

[jjpotesta]

Hello, im new to this whole forum thing, and to spearfishing, i was just wondering what a freeshaft is, and what kind of gun i should start with?????

 

[FredT]

Freeshafting is simply using a speargun but not attaching a line to the shaft. It's a good method for somewhat limited conditions. For more info search for "freeshaft" on http://spearboard.com

 

[jjpotesta]

Ok thanks, and i was just wondering what kind of gun you would recommend for a beginner, id be diving in about 30-110 ft. looking for grouper and snapper.

 

[sawman]

It seam every time goverment are joined together with concerned people who care about the water, marine life their consideration for it need improvement so we are right back were we started from, We need to implant seeds to our generation this is a place to set a process into motion.sawman

 

[TwoBitTxn]

Quote - 'As I stated earlier, I believe that over spear fishing can clean out some species, like groupers, jacks...

Unregulated fishing of any type can accomplish the same thing. Spearfishing is not the problem. The lack of limits, both size and numbers, is the problem

How could this happen when your limiting the take on fish and everyone who spears there is doing it on lung power, their bottom time at 20 metres is minimal unless they really train hard. If I dont think I can kill the fish with 1 shot and then get it to the surface then i dont take the shot. If im going to do something, I want to be the best I can be at it, and using scuba would just make it unrewarding.

Apnic spearfishing does lead a significant advantage over scuba. I can't tell you the number of times that I have descended down a line only to have the grouper, AJ's, and other bigger fish leave. This isn't even in an area where the fish have been hunted. I surmise they don't like the noisy bubble blowers. Free divers don't make noise. The fish aren't as skittish around them.

TwoBit

 

[mjh]

Resurrecting an old thread but couldn’t resist… One more piece of DATA. Yes, I know its about “line” fisherman and their sins. But the point is if they can have this level of impact SF is only adding fuel to the fire….

By Rick Weiss
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — New research indicates that sport fishermen are taking an unexpectedly big toll on saltwater fish populations, in some cases landing more fish than their commercial counterparts.

The most comprehensive survey ever conducted of U.S. saltwater recreational catches suggests that several struggling species — including red snapper, red drum and bocaccio — are unlikely to recover unless sport fishing is regulated more efficiently.

"The perception of their impact is quite different from the reality," said study leader Felicia Coleman of Florida State University. "If we're going to manage these stocks in a sustainable way, we can't ignore the recreational component."

An estimated 10 million Americans engage in saltwater fishing, up 20 percent in the past 10 to 20 years and an industry valued in the tens of billions of dollars.

Some groups offered cautious support for the study. Others rejected it as inaccurate.

"It's a whole bunch of malarkey," said Jim Donofrio of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, a New Jersey-based group claiming to have 75,000 members. "Most of the water contains none of the fish most of the time. You may see a lot of boats in the water, but that doesn't mean they're catching."

The study looked not at boats but at catches over the past 22 years, tallied primarily by states and the Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service. The team determined that 5 percent of U.S. marine catches are recreational, more than double previous estimates, researchers reported yesterday in the online edition of the journal Science. More surprising, they said, was that sport fishing accounted for 23 percent of catches of the most overfished species — sometimes trumping trawlers.

Off the Pacific Coast, for example, 59 percent of the landings of overfished species in 2002 — including ling cod, bocaccio and other rockfish species — were attributable to recreational fishermen. Only fish brought to shore were counted; many others are tossed back dead or nearly so.

Recreational fishing is mostly under state control, and some states do not even require licenses. Researchers suggest tighter licensing requirements and other limits on sport fishing, to be individualized by area and species.