2009 Spearfishing Nationals - Leo Carillo

[jmh805]

While having some tanks filled yesterday at the LDS, I heard that there were a lot of dead fish at Leo- when I asked what had happened, I was informed that the 2009 Spearfishing Nationals were held there last Thursday. After a little searching on the internet I found this: California boys do well @ nationals - Spearboard Spearfishing Community and this: 2009 USA Spearfishing Nationals Official Results - Spearboard Spearfishing Community

I'm feeling pretty disgusted right now, especially after reading that the competitors didn't even eat the fish they killed. I've always had mixed feelings about spearfishing, even after doing a little of it myself, but after seeing this I think I'm done. We hear constantly about how ethical and selective spearfishing is and how spearfishers only shoot what they intend to eat, but this event seems to show there's a pretty big gap between what people say and do. When you add up the scores, it comes to 375 fish, or 981.84 lbs. The biggest fish of the day was a nineteen pound sheephead. Probably the big resident male some of us have met there in the past.

The catch was donated to Ventura County Rescue Mission to feed the homeless, but if that were really the point of this competition, there are a lot of ways to help that wouldn't have involved destroying a lot of already scarce fish. There's a donate button on the VCRM's website that would have been a good place to start.

Sorry to rant, just had to get all this off my chest. The posters on spearboard say they had no negative remarks during the event, but had I been aware that this was going on, you can bet I would have been there with a lot of negative remarks, most of which are unprintable here. I bet at least a few of the people on this board would have been too.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

To the best of my knowledge, that organization conducts ONE (1) spearfishing tournament per year and each year it is moved to various locations around the country (and sometimes they even move to a freshwater venue for some years). The organizers set the minimum allowable size ABOVE the state regulations, so there should be zero concern about questionably sized fish taken. In addition, each competitor must respect the local game laws with regard to bag limits etc..

Your comments make it sound like there were dead fish discarded on the beach, yet you reference that the fish were donated to a charity for human consumption? I'm a little confused.

You should also know, that many of the competitors scouted that same area for WEEKS prior to the tournament and traveled in from all over the country. During the month or so before the tourmnament no competitor was allowed to take ANY fish from the competition area or face automatic DQ (and believe me, these guys would rat out a cheater if he was observed breaking their own self imposed and very restrictive rules).

So basically you have a bunch of guys (and some talented gals) from all over the country shooting fish on one day (within all legal bag limits) while using only kayaks and breathhold dive gear. A thousand pounds of fish sounds like a lot for one area in one day ( I didn't check your figures), but this is actually all the fish the 60 divers took for the ENTIRE MONTH leading up to the tournament. do the math, 60 divers, diving for 30 days.. 1800 diver-days and the total catch comes out to considerably less than a pound of fish a day! This is my own very rough estimate.

I can understand that some people dislike any type of fishing, but this event is very minor when you look at the big picture and consider the catch (and unwanted by-catch) of many commercial fishing operations that we take for granted.

In a year from now, these guys will be hunting many miles away from there.

 

[jmh805]

I don't care what type of gear the competitors were using, and I doubt that the fish care much either, since dead is dead.

The divers I spoke to reported seeing dead fish in the water, and I believe them after seeing threads with quotes like this:
2009 USA Spearfishing Nationals Comments - Spearboard Spearfishing Community
"The practice of “culling” does exist I have had several candid conversation’s with friends that have competed in past National events and they tell me that’s the worst part paddling back to the beach and seeing floating “culled fish” floating there for dead just because the Diver found a Bigger fish worth more Points."
That thread is an interesting read by the way, seems like even some California spearfishing clubs didn't compete because they though the competition was unethical.

Yes, the fish that were actually landed and counted went to charity, the Ventura County Rescue Mission to be exact, but consider this. According to nationals09.com, the registration fee for a 3 man team was $390, or $130 per person. At 59 competitors that comes out to $7,670. That much money could have done a lot more good than a bunch of shot up fish, but we both know this thing had nothing to do with helping, and everything to do with stroking egos, so please, lets not wrap it in this pious cloak with the excuse that they gave the fish to charity.

As for your claim that the huge number of fish doesn't matter, since the competitors didn't take any fish from the area in the preceeding month, all I have to say is SO WHAT. In one day, those 59 competitors did more damage than a hundred local fishers in one month. The out of state competitors wouldn't even be there, depleting local stocks at all if it were not for this competition. No spearfishers I know dive every single day out of a month anyway. If you add up all the days they can't dive due to bad weather, visibility, and the need to earn a living at a 9-5 job, the time an average local diver in the real world spends hunting would be considerably less than 30 days a month. This event may be minor compared to the devastating impact of commercial fishing, but 475 fish is a lot of fish to take from one small stretch of coast, already under heavy fishing pressure.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Poor old Guy Gilpatric is resting up in Santa Barbara in enternal sleep but after reading this is probably turning in his grave

 

[jraitchi]

Are you serious jmh805?

Yes we may see smaller numbers of fish in this one area we enjoy diving for a short period of time, but look at it from the spearfisherman's perspective. One tourny a year where they get together to enjoy their sport, 375 fish?? Come on, you're really going to complain about that?

As for the comment that they could have given their registration money to charity, why haven't you given all the money you spend driving to dive sites, buying gear, paying for boat dives, etc etc to charity? Because you enjoy diving. They enjoy spearfishing.

You really think this one event is more damaging than the diving we do? They are only allowed kayaks and no mechanical dive gear. We run dive boats (gas and oil into the ocean), fill tanks (hydrocarbons into the air), get down and break coral/kelp/pick up starfish and other life (hopefully unintentionally), constantly buy new gear (all the manufacturing that goes with that)...I could go on and on. Do we really care?? Hell no, scuba is too much fun and we do it anyway. But most of us are respectful toward the environment, and I'm sure the same goes for spearfishermen. Just like there are a minority of disrespectful divers who take coral, live marine life, more lobsters than the limit etc I'm sure there are spearfisherman who cull and don't eat their catch.

If you want to complain about a single spearfisherman taking an average of under 7 fish for a once-a-year national competition, then you should probably stop diving and give that money saved to a marine conservancy organization. Even if you already do donate to such an organization, your suggestion that the spearfisherman not hold their competition and give that money to charity is akin to asking that you quit diving and do the same. Like it or not, every time you dive you're damaging the marine environment.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I don't care what type of gear the competitors were using, and I doubt that the fish care much either, since dead is dead..... No spearfishers I know dive every single day out of a month anyway. .

IS that true? Do you really know spearfishers? What do they say when you say stupid crap like "i doubt the fish care much either"?

If you don't like fishing, then just say so. But some of your comments are so juvenile it is difficult to respond. Spearfishing is probably the most ethical means to take fish and it certainly has the lowest by-catch of any method of take.

 

[Tailchaser]

I honestly think that people who buy fish in markets and restaurants do more damage to the fish populations then spearfisherman a year period... Let alone one world wide event a year.

Do you eat seafood that is commercially caught? Look at all that by catch, reef damage, lost gear or nets that continue to kill... Now your going to complain about a small fraction of guys who target a few fish with no by catch... Give it up.

I am a spearfisher and I know that when these guys are not after a metal trophy they are after a trophy fish and may take at most 10 fish a year on average.

What gets me is the spearfishers on scuba... now if you want to talk mass slaughter with spearfishing lets look at them... I have been on too many boats where guys with tanks will go down and shoot anything that moves as fast as they can reload.

I bet you if you ask any guy who entered that tournament if this is their normal target species they will all say no! Spearfisherman do not target sheepshead, calico and so on... They want WSB, Yellowtail and tuna.

 

[fnfalman]

I'm not a spearo, but I'm not an enviro nut either. If this event were so destructive to the fish population of Leo Cabrillo Beach then the State of California wouldn't have let them hold the event there in the first place.

Secondly, I am concerned with this report of culling though. If a spearo were to discard a speared fish for a better trophy then that's despicable.

But otherwise, spear on. I'm sure that the hungry people these fishes were fed to appreciated the effort, as was the money generated by this event would have gone to good use anyway.