spear fishing

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DVYKID

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new to sport , been going with buddy free diving/spearfishing in new england waters..............wanted to try spearfishing w/ scuba.....my buddy says the bubbles scar the fish..is this true ,?? i hear mixed reviews about the subject free diving vs scuba for hunting??


thanks
 
Some sport fish are afraid of the noise that SCUBA makes, so SCUBA divers may never see these fish while freedivers will.
 
new to sport , been going with buddy free diving/spearfishing in new england waters..............wanted to try spearfishing w/ scuba.....my buddy says the bubbles scar the fish..is this true ,?? i hear mixed reviews about the subject free diving vs scuba for hunting?? thanks

Which is better? Ford or Chevy? . . . Everyone knows the answer. . . just because "They Know".

Inexperienced divers scare fish, because of their irregular movements, or irregular breathing, etc. Dragging hoses on the bottom, bumping into the bottom, all of the actions that cause a disturbance in the water. Making noise underwater can be ignored by fish if it is steady and understood by the fish. A smooth string of breaths interupted by holding your breath, like excitement over seeing a fish, will startle the fish from the stopping of noise. When approaching a fish, holding your breath, or breathing from Scuba both can work, and both fail. . . If you are "head on" to a fish and swimming rapidly toward it, you are a threat. If you are swimming toward a point away from the fish, then after you are deep enough, approach the fish sideways. You won't fit into their experience of Prey fish.

The Underwater Society of America has a long history of competition between divers in spearfishing. Much of the competition was in freshwater because there was less friction with the public when we killed lots of rough fish. Very few people would defend a dead carp or dead Gar. When competition was held in Salt water "all the fishies" were pretty. . . hold up a stringer of dead fish and the diver was a criminal killing all the fish. Emotions are more compelling than reason.

During years of competition, experienced scuba divers were swimming in the middle of schools of rough fish, without disturbing them. A group of former National Champion divers would kill 50 carp in a 4 hour contest. Why because with skill, a scuba diver can shoot and string fish next to each other. Inexperienced divers will scare fish, further than you can see.

Free diving, or Scuba Diving can hurt the public attitude by bad behavior and flaunting dead fish in a crude way. There are areas with too much spearfishing preasure, some divers want to reduce the preasure by bad mouthing Scuba divers. . . Their goal is to limit access to themselves. Another limiting factor, are state game laws. What they say is law. . . they don't justify, or accept any rational discussion for Limiting taking fish.
 
I frequent a couple cayes here that are heavily fished by commercial, pole spearfishermen, all done free diving. I've free dived in those areas many times and you have a hard time getting close to any fish. All you see of a large snapper is him sprinting away and going into a hole. But, I've strapped on a tank (no gun because it's illegal here to scuba and spear), the same day, the same reef, and gone down and had 4-5 lb snappers come right up to my mask.
By the same token, I've gone free diving in areas where the tourists scuba dive, and the fish allow me to get much closer...much to their demise....
 
,,,,, been going with buddy free diving/spearfishing in new england waters..............

What are the water temps and viz where you dive?
 

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