TWO QUESTIONS- Tarpon, Sharks and Spearfishing

I have a couple of questions-

1. How do tarpons react to divers? My fiancee and I were looking at information on tarpon fishing and it was talking about how aggressive they are towards prey items (I believe the term used to describe what they do to a meal was "INHALE IT"). Are they agressive towards divers? I meant these things get pretty damn big from what I hear and I wouldn't want something that big pissed at me. Do they bug out when divers show up or do they stick around and cruise the area like 'cuda do? I've snorkeled with cudas before and never seen them be aggressive- inquisitive but not aggressive. If they do stick around can you spearfish for one of them? Has anyone ever heard of one being taken this way by a diver?

2. This is the stupid freshwater diver in me talking, since I only have limited experience with sharks. I was watching Shark Week and there were several divers who had been bitten by sharks while spearfishing (the obligatory Rodney Fox "I nearly got e't by a white shark" clip notwithstanding) and the one guy they interviewed at length suggested that once you spear a fish you should leave the area. What are everyone else's views on this? How far away do you have to go? How much time do you have to exit the water most of the time before the man in the grey suit shows up? I mean I have no background in spearfishing and only a couple of encounters with sharks both at a distance (immediately followed by me moving with a sense of purpose back toward the boat or shore) so I wasn't sure what to make of this suggestion. I am looking forward to trying spearfishing while I am in the US Virgin Islands, but I would like to avoid winding up a shark hors d'oevure.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Tarpon around here largely ignore divers unless you approach closely, in which case they turn and swim off. If you approach slowly and carefully, you may be able to get within just a foot or two from them. Tarpon seem to prefer areas of the reef with limited surge or current.

Why exactly would you want to spear a tarpon? They aren't much good for eating. They do put up a good fight for fishermen, but around here it's strictly catch and release with tarpon.

Oh, see none of the websites I look at for information said that they were no good for eating (which is the reason I was asking). I guess I will stick to trying to get one (catch and release on rod and reel. Thanks for the 43.

Are there any other fish not worth trying to eat?

Can somebody explain when (if ever) it is safe to eat barracuda? I've heard that fish under a certain size are safe to eat, but over that size (which I don't recall) you run the risk of ciguatera toxicity.

Not sure about where you were planning to shoot Tarpon, but down in Alabama, you have to pay an additonal $50 for a tag if you shoot one, along with your AL spearfishing liscense.

I've dove with people who have claimed to have eaten Barracuda, and they say they taste "ok". I haven't heard anything regarding toxicity at certain sizes. I see em around pretty often, but I don't take them as I don't have any interest in eating them when there are plenty of AJs, Snappers, Ling, Flounders, Sheepshead, ect, swimming around as well.

As far as multiple diving/spearing in the same area. I do it and never had a problem. We've had a few rather large Bulls show up on us after we made it back on the boat keeping some of the people in the water still leery of taking anything else, but none of them showed any aggression. I have friends that have had sharks grab ahold of their catch while it was still attached to their stringers and to themselves. Releasing the stringers allowed the sharks to eat without bothering the divers anymore though

medic_diver45:

I have a couple of questions-

1. How do tarpons react to divers? My fiancee and I were looking at information on tarpon fishing and it was talking about how aggressive they are towards prey items (I believe the term used to describe what they do to a meal was "INHALE IT"). Are they agressive towards divers? I meant these things get pretty damn big from what I hear and I wouldn't want something that big pissed at me. Do they bug out when divers show up or do they stick around and cruise the area like 'cuda do? I've snorkeled with cudas before and never seen them be aggressive- inquisitive but not aggressive. If they do stick around can you spearfish for one of them? Has anyone ever heard of one being taken this way by a diver?

2. This is the stupid freshwater diver in me talking, since I only have limited experience with sharks. I was watching Shark Week and there were several divers who had been bitten by sharks while spearfishing (the obligatory Rodney Fox "I nearly got e't by a white shark" clip notwithstanding) and the one guy they interviewed at length suggested that once you spear a fish you should leave the area. What are everyone else's views on this? How far away do you have to go? How much time do you have to exit the water most of the time before the man in the grey suit shows up? I mean I have no background in spearfishing and only a couple of encounters with sharks both at a distance (immediately followed by me moving with a sense of purpose back toward the boat or shore) so I wasn't sure what to make of this suggestion. I am looking forward to trying spearfishing while I am in the US Virgin Islands, but I would like to avoid winding up a shark hors d'oevure.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

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Hi Stephen,

First, eating barracuda...it can be done and they can be tasty BUT it is not recommended because they can have ciguatera toxin. This is nasty and best left alone. As a kid, I used to eat small ones. Once the fish is dead, it very quickly picks up an odd metallic smell. Now I'm older and wiser and I won't eat them.

There are actually lots of fish you can eat but most people won't. Some fish simply don't taste good, others are so bony that they are a hassle to clean. There are even differences between traditional "good eating" species. Mutton snapper and yellow tail snapper are amazingly good. Larger Mangrove snapper are more fishy. Cubera snapper and Dog snapper are another ciguatera risk but can be quite tasty. Grouper, in general are good eating but Nassau, Red and Rock Hind are excellent.

Some "good eating" fish can change flavor depending on the time of year. My experience is that grouper are more "musty" during mating season.

Some of the best eating fish are a type of wrasse called Hogfish or Hog Snapper. The meat is mild and white.

Other types of really excellent eating fish may also depend on preparation. Snook (Robalo)....which cannot be speared should be skinned to avoid a soapy taste...hence one of its names...Soapfish. Once skinned, it is one of the tastiest fish around.

Grunt, Sheepshead, Cowfish, Trunkfish are all good to eat but a pain to prepare.

Mackerel, Jack, Permit are darker meated and have a stronger fish taste. Some people like it but I don't. Some of the jack may also have worms.

Before you start shooting fish, I think you should first dive without the gun. Learn to identify what you want to catch. You want to be comfortable diving in the water before you increase your workload by managing a speargun and tracking fish while keeping track of your buddy, the boat, your air and depth and 101 other distractions during spearfishing.

Onto spearfishing and sharks. First remember that Shark Week is sensational. The stupid shark expert in the Walker's Cay made every excuse in the book as to why he was bitten. Fact is that if you wade in the water with Bull Sharks with food in the water, one day your gonna get bitten. It didn't take a "shark expert" to figure that out. IMHO he's an idiot! Between him and Nigel Marvin, they made experts look silly.

I dive with the diver bitten in the Shark Week episode. He was attacked in the Bahamas while free diving in about 30 feet of water. After spearing a fish, he grabbed his spear and was taking it to the surface when a large bull shark swam up the blood trail and took the calf of his leg. It was a nasty wound.

A year later I was scuba diving a wreck off Miami and had just speared a large grouper. I put the speared fish back into my gun and was returning to the anchor line. My buddies started yelling...a 10 ft Bull shark was swiming up the blood trail behind me and got to my fin before I spotted him. I was within inches of the same fate as my friend. Needless to say, I got religion...and they say lightning doesn't strike twice.

I have been diving for 40 years and this is really the only time that there was a close call. In both of these cases, the shark was a Bull. They are probably #3 on the bad list after Great White and Tiger. They are everywhere and have a nasty habit of "sneaking up" from behind.

There are "rules" to handling speared fish. Even when you try to obey the rules though, sometimes you may attract a shark. If you weren't spearfishing, these sharks would most likely not bother you. They might be curious and swim around but then leave.

If you haven't dived with sharks, you might want to do that first before offering them some speared fish. You don't have to necessarily leave the area but you would want to remove the bleeding fish ASAP. They sharks are interested in the bleeding fish. You just happen to be in the way. Remove the blood and most of the real threat is gone.

BTW, it is my opinion that barracuda are actually a greater risk to a diver if he is handling speared fish in the open. They are also potentially dangerous to spear because they may make a "run" through your to get away. On the rare occasion that we have to spear one, my buddy and I will both get spears into it and than separate so the fish cannot swim toward either of us.

Hope this helps.

Larry Stein

Thanks for all the info. That was quite informative. (By the way, once I complete my bachelor's I'm gonna be trying to get into dental school.)

Sheepshead arent a pain to clean, it is a pain to clean the flesh off the jaw bone if you want to save the jaws .
i find halibut kind of a pain to clean.

I've often wondered how one would clean a flatfish like halibut or flounder......since they're oriented all weird, I wouldn't know where to cut.

What's so special about sheepshead jaws? Do they have big teeth or something?

Sheepshead teeth look like the molars you have in the back of your mouth If you decide to take a Sheepshead, keep him on your spear or string him through his mouth in a fashion where he can't take a good bite out of you.

I don't find Sheepshead that hard to clean.

As for Halibut and Flounder, I fillet them and don't have much trouble. I start with the fish face up and make a cut just above the fin and follow the fins around to the tail and slowly seperate the meat from the spine, working my way up and down the fish. I do the same with the bottom of the fish. Then I fillet the skin off each of the quarters I've removed from the fish itself. There are probably better and more effecient ways to do it, but thats the way I learned