I must admit i don't eat fish anymore, my guilty pleasure is calamari.
Spear fishing with scuba equipment is my problem, reminds me of a certain dentist, you know stacking the odds so much in your favor that there's no challenge, skill or discipline.
on a side note, i can't believe the balanced rig and buoyancy nazis haven't lambasted this video.
Ok, Rusty. I'll bite. Hate to do it to you, but I have to take you to task on this one. I can't stand when someone tells someone else how to harvest a fish.
There is absolutely zero difference in the end result of harvesting a fish from hook and line, spearfishing while free diving or spearfishing while scuba diving.
A dead fish, is a dead fish. If your argument is there is no skill spearfishing on scuba then I would counter that there is a hell of a lot less skill in hook and line. I can catch just about any fish on a child's Mickey Mouse toy rod and reel. I can catch a hell of a lot more fish on hook and line in a day than I can spearfishing. Probably kill a lot more too from blowing out their swim bladders. It sucks to watch short fish just float away dead because they were unable to be revived despite venting efforts. So are you against hook and line since it takes less skill than spearfishing? No matter what type of fishing someone does, the real skill is in finding the fish, not how they're harvested.
Now, if you told me you don't eat any seafood, don't buy it at the market or restaurant and are against harvesting fish, I could respect your opinion. The problem I have is you eat calamari. Which is caught with nets, which likely results in tons of wasted bycatch. For anyone else reading this who thinks personally harvesting a fish is wrong, yet they purchase seafood from the market or restaurant, are themselves the problem. If Jim or myself harvests one fish to feed our families, guess how many fish died? Yep, one. If you purchased one fish at the market or one order of calamari at a restaurant, how many fish and other marine animals died or were wasted/spoiled? A lot more than what you're consuming. My position is this:
"If you want to eat seafood, you earn it! We don't have control over reproduction supply like we do over cows, pigs and chickens."
I would also be curious to know if you have ever spearfished before. I'll admit stoning an average sized Hogfish is not much of a challenge. They're a rather dumb fish. But if you think there is no risk or skill in shooting a big Cobia or Greater Amberjack
on scuba then you simply don't understand how powerful these fish are or don't understand spearfishing. The other challenge with spearfishing on scuba is having good accuracy, hitting a fish within a few inches to stone them and quick reaction time. If you're blowing bubbles as you descend on a ledge you may only have a few seconds to react before the fish are spooked and move off the site. Just ask a rebreather or breath hold spearfisherman about the difference in fish behavior. Much easier to get a shot off those two ways than it is blowing bubbles. I had a rebreather tell me, "It's great when you bubble blowers leave because you're low on air. As soon as you're gone all the fish come back." Hook and line, no problem, the fish aren't going anywhere, they don't even see me coming. I could clear out a ledge in 30 minutes. Which of course I don't. Avid sportsman tend to be more conservationist and "practice" sustainability, compared to many who just post about it while ordering sushi at dinner.
End rant.... Here's a more enjoyable video to uplift my negative tone in this post.
