Spearfishing on Scuba

[Eric Sedletzky]

Here in California we have daily bag limits. A limit is a limit, it doesn't matter what method of take. And there are minimum size limits on several species. A daily bag limit means that is the maximum amount of game allowed in possession at one time including what's back home in the freezer. I never violate that law, or any F&G law for that matter.
I spear fish on scuba. I also spear fish while freediving.
Generally I only take a few fish either way. I like to use scuba to get deep scallops. There's a limit on those too, ten a day.
I like to go deep and be selective when I hunt big lingcod. On scuba I have the chance to be a little more selective by examining the fish to make sure it's of legal length and not guarding a nest. While Freediving I am more apt to shoot the first one I see since my bottom time is very limited.

I have no reservations or political bias either way. A limit is a limit, and most of the time I never get a limit.
Just for information, hook and line rock fishing is closed winter and spring. It opens in July and closes in December (I think). Spearfishing while diving is open year around.
They have concluded that both scuba and freediving spearfishermen have very little impact on our coastal fisheries. Hook and line fishing, charter fishing boats and commercial fishing impact the fishery a lot more.

Oh, and they also allow fishing off the rocks hook and line year around.

 

[BoltSnap]

Here in California we have daily bag limits. A limit is a limit, it doesn't matter what method of take. And there are minimum size limits on several species. A daily bag limit means that is the maximum amount of game allowed in possession at one time including what's back home in the freezer. I never violate that law, or any F&G law for that matter.
I spear fish on scuba. I also spear fish while freediving.
Generally I only take a few fish either way. I like to use scuba to get deep scallops. There's a limit on those too, ten a day.
I like to go deep and be selective when I hunt big lingcod. On scuba I have the chance to be a little more selective by examining the fish to make sure it's of legal length and not guarding a nest. While Freediving I am more apt to shoot the first one I see since my bottom time is very limited.

I have no reservations or political bias either way. A limit is a limit, and most of the time I never get a limit.
Just for information, hook and line rock fishing is closed winter and spring. It opens in July and closes in December (I think). Spearfishing while diving is open year around.
They have concluded that both scuba and freediving spearfishermen have very little impact on our coastal fisheries. Hook and line fishing, charter fishing boats and commercial fishing impact the fishery a lot more.

Oh, and they also allow fishing off the rocks hook and line year around.

My thoughts exactly!!! Similar rules and attitude in New England with some local variations.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I also like to collect some urchins almost every time I go out.
I either like to bring them home and after processing I eat the roe raw with a little wasabi or smeared on picked ginger.
Lately though, We've been breaking the urchins open right on the beach and cleaning the bile out with sea water, then slurping the row packets down right at the sea shore. Nothing like it!! it's like rocket fuel. The urchin roe has been bright yellow, plump, and very sweet.
I haven't been ab diving yet this year. I plan to go out soon and I will bring my portable stove, skillet, garlic, olive oil, some gourmet bread crumbs, and I will feast myself right on the beach after I dive.
The way I prepare my lingcod is a story worthy of an entirely new thread, OMG!
I'm also pretty damn good at making a gourmet meal with scallops.

I love sea food, and it is one of the prime reasons why I dive.

 

[Water Boy76]

These laws are in place to help maintain the balance and allow fish to populate. Depending on the location, different laws are being but into place. I know there are some very good spearfisherman out there that do not use scuba. There are not enough to impact the population. I believe most good spearfishman support the ban on using scuba to spear fish. The ocean may seem so big that we cannot impact it but this is not true. We have to create laws to help maintain the fish population for our children. The ban on scuba spearfishing is one of them. Adventure-Ocean

Quit it with this bleeding heart crap already. We do have laws that protect the oceans they are called "bag limits" and you should know that the US some of the most restrictive fishing laws in the world. You believe most good spearfisherman support ban. Let me guess they are all freedivers... Last thing we need is more GD regulations in this world.
FWIW I do both. And I'm much more selective on SCUBA because I can be. Tire of all this save the world crap based on assumptions and feeling instead of facts..

 

[Adventure-Ocean]

You mean the politically biased reports?? So spearos on Scuba are impacting fish population in deep water but fishermen aren't? It can't be because the fishing industry has more money and political clout that you can't handle, can it?

---------- Post added May 11th, 2014 at 09:54 PM ----------

And the deeper waters where scuba divers have incredibly very little time and have to work even harder to spear fish, bag it and carry it with them all of the time while underwater and not be able to come up to the surface only at the end of the short dive?

I honestly don't know why you ask a question and are so confrontational about the answer.

You seem to have a very negative opinion about scuba fisherman and about government trying to preserve the fish industry.

You say a scuba diver has very little time deep but a hunter can stay an hour at 60 ft. The larger egg laying fish are at risk from these fisherman. Yes, good freedivers can hunt and kill at 60 ft. but there are few hunters that can hunt that deep from surface so these fisherman are not impacting fish population.

A small female fish may lay 10,000 eggs, a large female would lay 100,000. The government trying to create boundaries so we can still fish is not a bad thing. People are impacting the world in many ways. There is already plenty of proof that the world fish population is deminishing. Pollution, overfishing, global warming and using unlawfull means to catch fish are very big reasons for the decline.

To outlaw scuba spearfishing is a small way to help preserve reef fish. If this upsets you then I'm sorry. Adventure-Ocean

---------- Post added May 15th, 2014 at 10:15 AM ----------

Quit it with this bleeding heart crap already. We do have laws that protect the oceans they are called "bag limits" and you should know that the US some of the most restrictive fishing laws in the world. You believe most good spearfisherman support ban. Let me guess they are all freedivers... Last thing we need is more GD regulations in this world.
FWIW I do both. And I'm much more selective on SCUBA because I can be. Tire of all this save the world crap based on assumptions and feeling instead of facts..

I tried to point out that there are different laws in different places in the world. There are certainly many places that scuba fisherman are not impacting. The original question asked why in some countries do these restrictions exist but not for freedivers.

The people out in our world trying to help preserve it are not bleeding heart crap. At least they are trying. It's people like you that think you should use bleach or dynamite or anything else to get what you want. These same bleeding hearts help put laws into place to stop the rape of our worlds oceans. It's nice that you follow the bag limit law. The same law put out by the GD regulations. The people who try to figure out how to preserve our world are good people that should be respected.

 

[Water Boy76]

How dare you assume that I pollute the oceans by using bleach or dynamite. These are the wild assumptions I speak of made by environmentalists.

Spearfishing in any form is the most selective and least desctructive method of fishing period. We don't drag nets, drop long lines, speed troll etc... Our gear is not left all of the ocean to rot for decades. So who cares if you have a tank on or not.

I don't appreciate your agenda or your intent to pit Freedivers against Scuba divers. We have bigger problems without divers fighting amongst themselves.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

How dare you assume that I pollute the oceans by using bleach or dynamite. These are the wild assumptions I speak of made by environmentalists.

Spearfishing in any form is the most selective and least desctructive method of fishing period. We don't drag nets, drop long lines, speed troll etc... Our gear is not left all of the ocean to rot for decades. So who cares if you have a tank on or not.

I don't appreciate your agenda or your intent to pit Freedivers against Scuba divers. We have bigger problems without divers fighting amongst themselves.

I'm in agreement on all of this.
Divers whether scuba or free have the ability to pick and choose exactly which fish they want. Spearfishing is not the easiest method of take either.
Hook and line recreational fishing takes way more fish than diving.
Hook and line doesn't discriminate which fish is being taken. It could be an egg laying female or a nest guarding male but the guy up on the boat has no way of knowing that. An educated diver can study the fish and has a better chance of knowing what the circumstances are. Divers also can't stay deep long. Hook and line fishing you could be out there all day at the 160' mark until you get your limit. 160' on scuba is a tech dive, and I doubt somebody is going to go to that depth with deco obligations, gas mixes etc., just to shoot a couple fish.
I have personally seen hook and line fishermen at the docks with gross amounts of game (limits of every species). I have never done that scuba diving or freediving, I doubt I could even if I wanted to, and none of friends have either.
There's also the fact that boat anglers out number divers probably 500 to 1 (or more).
What about all the hooks, lead weights, and line that gets lost every year throughout the world from hook and line angling. Not to mention all the beer cans and trash that gets thrown overboard by calous fishermen.

I think your comments on spearfishing in general, Ocean-Adventure, are unstudied and without merrit, and your comments about dynamite and bleach are just downright assinine and offensive. "People like you"? What the hell is that supposed to mean?
So you're saying that scuba spearfishermen like us promote using dynamite and bleach!!!
Are you insane??????!!!!!

---------- Post added May 16th, 2014 at 01:46 PM ----------

I also want to add that sea food is a large and important part of my diet.
I avoid buying commercially caught seafood just because I don't want to support an industry that is that irresponsible and wasteful with bycatch and questionalble fishing methods.
With spearfishing there is exactly ZERO (0) bycatch and wasted game.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Back to the topic:

Hawaii (the Big Island) is looking at banning scuba spearfishing. I do believe the law has stalled, but may eventually pass.

I have mixed feelings. In my youth here in Hawaii I speared both freediving and with scuba.

I could fill a large cooler freedive spearing in a single morning session.... impossible for me to do the same thing hunting on scuba for two reasons:

1. Limited hunting time. Hunting on scuba I might have 40 minutes of useable time. Hunting while freediving is limited only by my physical endurance.

2. Ability to stalk fish. Possibly just me, but unless I would do extended breath holds on scuba (and we did!) to get close, the fish were harder to approach. Then again, we hunted almost exclusively with pole spears, so we did need to get close...

I honestly do not know how much impact scuba spear fishing has here in Hawaii. There may be merit to regulating / banning it... but my feeling based on local knowledge is that far more fish are being "harvested" by freedivers and rod & reel here in Hawaii...

Sorry for the slight sidetrack.

Best wishes.

 

[Adventure-Ocean]

To BurhanMuntasser I apologize for suggesting you would use bleach and dynamite. You were getting down (bleeding hearts) on people trying to work with these difficult, sensitive subjects and it pissed me off. My brother and I are those bleeding hearts and we have worked hard over years trying to preserve our environment threw the "GD regulations."

I think one big problem is I lived and worked on small islands my entire life and the problems they face are different from stateside. Where I worked and lived the coral reefs and fish that live on it is an important resource having to be protected. Spearfishing whether freediving or scuba yields far more fish than rod and reel by far.

I lived on the islands over 40 years and speared fish freediving and snorkling and I agree you can fill a big bag easier and faster freediving. I also shot the biggest fish when scuba diving. The environmentalists and marine biologists are the ones waving the caution flag saying that the bigger fish that lay eggs live deeper and have been hurt by the scuba harvesters. I realize this fact exists on the islands. I actually have know knowledge of this being a problem on the mainland.

I assume on the mainland there are other problems being addressed trying to balance our need to eat sea food with the issues that are threatening that. I am one trying to support these efforts. I again apologize for my earlier post. Adventure-Ocean

 

[Adventure-Ocean]

Sorry, I meant to write "freediving and scuba".