Sport divers and Spear fishers on same boats?

[crgoode]

Earlier this year I went diving in Jacksonville Beach, Fla. On the boat I went with were the captain, his son who was the DM, a friend of theirs who was also supposed to be an asst. DM, and 4 paying divers, one of whom was either a friend of the crew or a very regular customer. The two DMs and the regular were spearfishing the whole trip. I felt like my wife and I and the other 2 sport divers were just along to pay for the trip. I have never run into this before, Pompano Beach is the only other Florida salt water diving I have done, is this a common practice? I'm planning a long diving weekend in West Palm Beach next month and am wondering if I'm likely to run into this again.

 

[augie]

I've seen this before on some boats. DCI (out of Boynton Beach), who I dive semi-regularly with, does allow spearfidshing from their boats. They will drop the dive groups at different times, and usually on different sides of the reef (you get your choice - inside or outside - the hunters usually take the deeper outside of the reef and most of the sport divers opt for the inside). I've never felt like "chum" on any of those dives.

I'd suggest you call the operator you plan to dive with ahead of time and find out their policy.

Most of the operators I've been with that run out of West Palm (Riviera marina) don't allow spearfishing from their boats, so it may be a moot point for you.

 

[f94gator]

Let me ask a question; would you have been upset if the crew went diving without their spearguns? I rarely dive a charter anymore, but my personal stance is if their diving doesn't interfere with my diving experience, I don't care if they do or not.

Second point, I don't think a great deal of charter boats allow spearfishing, but I don't think it's unheard of either. I could be wrong; like I said I don't dive charters much at all. I spearfish and I'm obviously biased, but I don't think it's a big deal.

Personally, I probably wouldn't spearfish off a charter not devoted specifically towards spearfishing because A) too many divers are usually put in on a spot to make hunting worthwhile and B) most charter boats devoted to sightseeing go to spots which are too heavily dove to hold many shootable fish to begin with.

 

[pdoege]

Plenty to choose from.

I've dove with hunters and I don't think that it has increased or decreased my experience.

Well, other than having dead fish on board.

Peter

 

[Charlie99]

pdoege once bubbled...
I've dove with hunters and I don't think that it has increased or decreased my experience.

Well, other than having dead fish on board.

Did that decrease your experience because you don't like dead fish, or increase it because you ate sushi on the surface interval?

 

[pdoege]

Walking thru fish goo during the surface interval is a pain. Some boats have hoses to blow the guts off the fantail. Some don't.

I've yet to meet a sushi chef whilst underway, btw. Wouldn't mind it.

Peter

 

[Charlie99]

pdoege once bubbled...
I've yet to meet a sushi chef whilst underway, btw. Wouldn't mind it.

I've had really really fresh sashimi on fishing charters out of Shirohama, the Boso pensinsula, near Tokyo.

 

[Rick Murchison]

While I wouldn't call the practice "routine" I would characterize it as "not infrequent." We usually see spearfishermen on the boats we use two or three times a year.
I don't particularly care for it - not because I don't like spearers, but the kind of spearers who generally come aboard a cattleboat are almost always inexperienced. Otherwise they'd know that cattleboats are usually a poor way to get legal fish.
Still, every now and then someone gets a good fish.
Rick

 

[100days-a-year]

I assure you that you were along to help pay for the trip.As a rule it is difficult to run a dive charter buisness without paying customers.It sounds like you basically had the boat to yourselves as it normally has 8-10 or more paying customers.In Florida there are no laws preventing anyone from spearfishing,it's not immoral or unethical and charters are allowed to run the buisness as the see fit.I might be concerned about not being babysat by the DMs tho.But then again DMs are interested in something other than what they are supposed to at times,like the young chica or the errant photographer.I'll bet they cooked lunch for you.Your choices are limited here to only about 6 charterboats.Steve owns 3 of them so your odds were 50/50.O...I forgot ...the other 3 allow spearfishing 2.

 

[Stone]

I use to spear off a charter. The captain let us go off first, which helped a little. The problem was the charter went to the same, overfished, overdived sites. We shot some snappers, AJs, and flounder, but I didn't start getting grouper until I got my own boat and could go to some of the deeper, less visited sites. We never had a DM go spearfishing, but on my certification dive, the instructor did a bounce dive to bag a grouper he had seen. We cooked and ate it back at the dive shop. That's probably when I decided to become a spearfisherman.