Spearfishing Ethics...

[Mako Mark]

I think it is fine if you are going to eat whet you catch. The advantage of spearing fish, is that you choose which fish you are going to catch. With a hook and line, you dont get to choose, therefore have a bycatch.

 

[CBulla]

Do you eat all your catch?

Then it's ethical.

A complete 110% echo of this!

I have some little rules that I follow. No small fish, if its questionable I dont even considerate it. Also, resident fish are safe if its an area divers visit. Check local & state laws before going out to make sure your up to date, an example of this is the county south of where I live has a 9 mile no spear ordinance, but you can shark fish right off the beach..(??).

Anyone who thinks its unethical obviously thinks its like shooting fish in a barrell.. In actuality, unless your free diving, its like shooting ducks from an ultralite with slug shells... free diving is more like duck hunting from a hang glider.

 

[OceanusDC]

I agree with Cancun Mark, CBulla and most everyone else...its a hot topic.
One aspect I think of, is the environmental impact of spear vs hook and line fishing (anglers). Although I used to fish with a spear and I fished with hook & line, that has changed. I had a talk with a friend one time about the pros and cons of both and it he put in a different light for me. “We hear about animals tangled in fishing lines and dieing needlessly. We see lures and hooks and mono-line all over wrecks and other dive areas causing diving hazards and again, trapping fish to die. As an Angler, you hook whatever bites, you wound whatever bites and if you’re a law-abiding citizen, you throw back what legally you can’t keep (of course its been wounded and sometimes mortally). With a spear, you see what you’re shooting. Thus, if you’re a RESPONSABLE person, you shoot only what you can handle, what you can legally keep, and only if its something you will eat. You almost never see a spear gun laying tangled on a rock or wreck as the spear gun shaft line seldom breaks.”
My two cents…He was right in my mind. I shoot the fish I want at a size I can keep. I don’t foul wrecks or other dive sites and holding onto a big fish while spearfishing especially while free-diving can be a heck of a lot more challenging than sitting strapped to a boat chair! BUT, I think they are both sports. From an environmental standpoint though, I think spearfishing hedges above hook and line.

 

[CBulla]

<snip> “We hear about animals tangled in fishing lines and dieing needlessly. We see lures and hooks and mono-line all over wrecks and other dive areas causing diving hazards and again, trapping fish to die.

<snip> I don’t foul wrecks or other dive sites and holding onto a big fish while spearfishing especially while free-diving can be a heck of a lot more challenging than sitting strapped to a boat chair! BUT, I think they are both sports. From an environmental standpoint though, I think spearfishing hedges above hook and line.

Excellent points to consider as well. In one instance I have actually opted not to spear a site, but to CLEAN it of line. While there was plenty of fish to take my chances with, I made the conscious decision to better the site for future use by both myself as a spearo, but more importantly the fish that inhabit the site. VERY FEW hook and liners will do that. I can personally cite only one instance where the hook-n-line fisherman work with divers to clean an area to provide a better habitat (http://www.conchdivers.com/psd/boca/).

I duno, maybe I'm just a sap. It costs me the same to go out either way.

 

[pescador775]

Spearfishing while freediving is a pure sport. It is like wingshooting ducks and doves. SCUBA is not quite the same level. It is likened to a heavily laden hunter stalking bear. In any case, by banning SCUBA one abdicates the table fare to string fishermen. String fishing is not sport, it is fun but not sport. If it were sport then it would be legal to snare ducks with a baited hook. Just think about it. The string fishermen who exploits deep reefs employ electric reels, live bait, barbed hooks, all while drinking beer and resting in a lounge chair (oops, fighting chair, LOL). The fish, driven by hunger and inherited instinct, cannot flee or raise a defense because he doesn't understand the threat. He can only attempt to resist after being snared. Far from a lounge chair, the SCUBA diver places himself at risk every time he goes down to hunt. His bottom time is severely limited in places where SCUBA is applicable. If lucky, he takes a couple fish and returns exhausted but exhilarated. He counts his catch while the string fishermen continue to deploy their monofilament, invisible but deadly.

The point is, there are places not reachable by freediving, and SCUBA is needed to visit the same reefs that string fishermen exploit so ruthlessly. To even question the legitimacy of using SCUBA is to fall into a trap of wrong thinking. The SCUBA diver is subject to the same catch limits as string fishermen, and free divers, for that matter. Given this, it can hardly be argued that there is some 'unfair' advantage to using SCUBA.

There may be a difference in the quality of the catch between divers and anglers. Typically, the diver will take a couple mature fish while a boatload of string fishermen will keep some fish that are juvenile and undersized. True, they may throw back many small ones. However, some of these ultimately die. I once saw a boatload of boy scouts catch and keep a hundred groupers of about 5-10 pounds bodyweight. It was wholesome activity for them but I would never spear a 5 pound grouper. The very idea makes me queasy and evokes feelings of collective guilt and outrage. Maybe the laws are catching up with this, I don't know but I do know that laws have been relatively lenient respecting size.

Do you like shrimp? Well, also think about 'bycatch'. These are the millions and millions of juvenile snappers, groupers, etc, etc that are killed by shrimpers and fed to the gulls. When you are about to fret about SCUBA divers think about THAT first.

 

[greenpirate69]

I think that its the same as hunting on land. when i go deer heunting, the deer has a chance. no matter what wepon i use. her can hear, and smell me.

same thing with the fish. no matter what wepon you use, they can still see, and sence the eletrical impulses in the water. they have a chance.

as long as you eat what you catch, then all is good.

 

[SpearSlinger1]

I think there's something that I neglected to mention earlier, having fished hook and line for even more years than I have spearfished and much more often. Hook and line is easier and more efficient, but in no way less sporting than spearing. As a part of a whole user group, particularly in a blood sport, it's important to not alienate each other with cheap pot-shots or the bunny huggers will eventually have it all banned.

 

[pescador775]

You want a pot shot. OK, Ace, how about the fact that spearfishing for tuna and stripers has been banned in certain parts of the Western Atlantic including much of the eastern seaboard. Who do you think is behind this discrimination? Good guess, it is your buddies, the string fishermen. By the time you get back from Okinawa it could all be gone. These string fishermen are doing one good thing by lobbying against gill nets but the divers are helping too. That's the only area of cooperation that makes sense but it is limited to CA with some efforts also in FLA. I talked to the Fed Marine Fisheries Comm in Mass and they told me that they didn't want divers interfering with traffic on the tuna grounds. In VA they allow 'catch and release' of stripers when it is well know that in hot weather half of all released stripers die. In addition they have legal seasons and limits for string fishermen. Yet, they have banned spearfishing for stripers. The limit is zero. There, that's the ugly face of your buddies. So, where's the harm in offending them by objecting to discrimination and by pointing out that spearfishing is a legitimate sport? They've been treating us like dogs for decades anyway. As far as the 'sport' or string fishing I guarantee you that if fish were not mute, that if they could scream and squeal like a pig or dog, not a single woman would ever cast a line and half the men would give it up. If they could hear the moans and whimpers as the fish suffocated in a coffin like box the rest would leave.

I think there's something that I neglected to mention earlier, having fished hook and line for even more years than I have spearfished and much more often. Hook and line is easier and more efficient, but in no way less sporting than spearing. As a part of a whole user group, particularly in a blood sport, it's important to not alienate each other with cheap pot-shots or the bunny huggers will eventually have it all banned.

 

[SpearSlinger1]

Prime examples, Pescador, of exactly my point. We as spearfishers have to get better organized to keep things like this from happening and we need to support other user groups to keep the kind of people that think of "Finding Nemo" as a documentary from very happily putting a stop to all of it. There are no spearos that I personally know that don't also fish hook and line.

There is no harm in pointing out that spearfishing is a legitimate sport, but when you offend someone they're a lot more likely to regard anything you have to say after that as being irrelevant.

As far as the 'sport' or string fishing I guarantee you that if fish were not mute, that if they could scream and squeal like a pig or dog, not a single woman would ever cast a line and half the men would give it up.

It's a mute point because it doesn't happen and even if it did the same could be said for spearfishing as for hook and line.

If you see what you perceive to be an injustice you need to get organized with other people of like or similar interest, get politically active, and attend workshops and meetings that are held on the issues you have interest in. Including members of other user groups in your organization will give it a broader base which will give it more political clout. Being derisive with me and engaging in insipid whining in an on-line forum are not going to change anything.

 

[inkabodpain]

i spearfish with a riff 32'' metal tech...i love it.is it fair? is it fair or more ethical to let some one else kill the animals you eat so you don't have to feel guilty?i use scuba to hunt and i've also freedived...freediving i snorkle around structure until i hear or see fish. i then hold my breath then decend ,locate and shoot without making a sound,is it more fair this way than on scuba?freedivers around here have an attitude of superiority over scuba divers because of the lets breath hold, decend in silence,then sneak up in silence and shoot (just to give the fish a chance)...i think we'll all agree its good to be at the top of the food chain and to be able to enjoy hunting fish (without having to smear fish piss on ourselves like deer hunters yuk yuk)we should stick together and keep our oceans clean and our lawmakers with our best interests in mind.and i most wholeheartedly agree that you should eat what you kill and take no more than you'll use.