Spearfishing with Scuba

[smile47]

Use to spearfish scuba,now its freediving

 

[Scuba-evolutioned]

Scuba or freediving spearfishing in a controlled manner should be exceptable anywhere in the world. With newbies and a gun in their hand they are gonna smoke anything they see!! After your first proper fish that soon changes and people have self control on what they shoot. If you are gonna eat it then shoot it. If you aint gonna eat it dont even go in the water with a gun.
I see Thai fishing boats everyday of the week hualing 1 net between 2 boats and cleaning the seas of any living or unliving thing in our National Marine Park and you never get a diver sat at one of the local fish restaurants enquiring how they catch the fish they keep on show for everyone to see before they pick them out to eat.
The nerve of these so called ECO friendly divers is bull***** to say the least. Remember any form of spearfishing is selective as you see what you are about to shoot. Better than pulling it up on a rod only to throw it back cuz its not what you want and then chances are its dead later on as it suffers from the bends lol.
I say ban any form of fishing unless you have a gun in your hand!!!!!!!!

 

[SkipperJohn]

I say ban any form of fishing unless you have a gun in your hand!!!!!!!!

That's awfully radical.
What is needed is a control on commercial fishing. Look at the new discovery show Swords. Those guys set lines over 3 miles each. Multiple lines form each boat and a hook every few feet. I don't care how many recreational fishermen there are, the damage done by them is infinitesimal compared to the commercial guys and their advanced gear, techniques and willingness to travel many many hundreds of miles to decimate a species and convert it to cash. Recreational fishermen convert cash to fish in just about the most uneconomical way possible. My striped bass is running around $40 per pound on my best days!

 

[bubblemaker01]

Is it legal to shoot game fish on SCUBA in CA??

 

[Captain Walt]

I have done some spearfishing in FL while diving (scuba).

I know that lobstering is legal on scuba in both FL, and CA. Spearfishing is legal on scuba in FL, not sure about CA.

Honestly, hunting with Scuba does not seem like much of a huge fish drain to me. We may catch 2~3 fish a day or less on scuba. I can do that in an hour on a fishing boat, and there are a LOT more fishing boats out and about vs. scuba. If you have ANY doubt of that fact, just visit any commercial dock, and take a look at the ratio of dive to fishing boats, assuming they HAVE any dive boats.

Outstanding post Ron. We are battling the hook and line charters at every meeting. They (bureaucrats) are getting ready to shut down 98' out. Putting undue pressure on the artificial reefs closer in, hear in Ga.

 

[Captain Walt]

I've fished rod & reel for over 50 years. I've spearfished (SCUBA) no more than 3 times in this last summer on the same wrecks I have fished for most of my life. First, for the primary species I am seeing here (tataug & seabass) I was amazed at how peaceful the fish have seemed. Little I did spooked them aside from sudden movements. As far as what is better for the fish, I'd say hands down spearfishing. While R&R fishing I catch a great many unwanted species and smaller fish. Most are wounded if not from the hook, but the rapid ascent where you can see the obvious barotrauma. Fish come up with eyes bulging, intestine bursting out of their rear cavity, swim bladder expanded out of their mouth. Many of these released fish, even after taking all the proper precautions (puncturing the bladders, etc) have a heck of a time descending and often end up seagull food before they get down. Only aiming at and shooting large fish, I dont have to worry about releasing unwanted catch. (Only once, my first shot penetrated a nice fat seabass and to my surprise had another small seabass also on the spear. I have to think this is fairly rare)
& then consider the commercial fisherman where is unwanted by-catch is measured by the tonnage.

I run H and L charters as well as spearfishing charters. Hook and Line dose more damage to the reef hands down just buy shear numbers of boats alone. I know how many boats are out spearfishing on any giving weekend here in Savannah Ga.....it is not that many in comparison. Thanx for your post, great argument. But it is an argument about a word...."gun". The bad guy with a "spear....gun". And we spearfishermen are the weee minority in this mess. Outstanding!

 

[Payne2225]

ive done all spearfishing in the past while freediving..now that im getting scuba certified im sure ill scuba while spearing more often then free diving..

 

[desertdiver916]

Yes it is legal to spearfish while using SCUBA in CA. When I first got into spearfishing I used SCUBA but now prefer to freedive. Most of the places I dive are cold water/low vis and if really low vis will use SCUBA, but over 15' will usually freedive. If I had warm water/ 35' vis all the time I would freedive more. So depending on what fish/depths/regulations in your state, it changes.