A knife may be illegal in some areas and especially in marine parks. Trauma shears are great for cutting wire leader and webbing or netting if the bolt does not rust out and snap when you really need it. Line cutters like the Trilobite are all I usually carry now. I put (a lot of) grease on the blades and change them frequently.
However, apparently along the east coast of Florida the BFK is still a thing so I always make sure to have my genuine titanium Tekna on my waist strap when visiting though I really should get something bigger that straps to my leg like the DMs there. Good grief!
Just for purpose of fashion.
It was pointed out to me a long time ago, I think on this very board and it is a true thing. If one were to be impaled by a fishing hook or lure which can happen in certain areas what would you prefer to use to cut the line? Shears, knife, line cutter? What if the rusty hook is in your actual flesh of your arm or leg or back and hurts like a mother --------!!!!!!! Now imagine trying to cut that leader, with a hook in your skin with a knife or a line cutter, all by yourself. The only one of the three options that can cut the leader single handed without the line being pulled on as it is cut is with the shears. Of course it is then off to the ER to get the imbedded hook out of your skin, some stitches possibly and a tetanus shot. For me, the worse part of the ordeal would be the shot. I would pass out.
It has been a while back, shore diving near Commercial Pier LBTS, I was doing some photo work, da, da, da, doom (Sea Hunt). I had been contacted by the (fictional) Marine Sea Aquarium to photograph the sighting by a pretty mermaid of the rare coelacanth she had reported while sunbathing. Da, da, dooom. As I was swimming along, attending my mission, I felt a tug on my surface float, ah, well, a rogue wave perhaps and I ignored it only to now find myself being hauled upward from the depths, da, da, da, dooooom. I pulled my trusty Tekna dagger cutting myself free of my surface float though it was a fight but the razor edge parted the cave line just in time to prevent Rapture of the Deep. Upon surfacing to recover my float I found a FWC duo and Flipper holding the end of my surface float line. So he asks me why I am diving without a float and flag and I told him that would be because you stole it from me when you tried to pull me up from 60 feet! So then he asks me what I am doing? Uh, I am on a mission for the Marine Park to photograph beautiful sunbathers, uhm, wait, uh, coelacanths! Okay, well, you are banned from Florida for a year, da, da, da, dooom. The director of the Marine Park was happy to get the photographs confirming the sightings, a scientific expedition would be next to capture the rare beasts for display and a possible fish fry. Join me, Nemrod, next week, for another thrilling episode.
On a real note, assuming the above was not real but it probably might have been, some of these modern, braided Kevlar or Spectra fishing lines just will not cut or they can be difficult. I cannot get a plastic straw with my milkshake because it might impale a turtle but shearing off fishing line all over the place, that is not a danger to marine life and is okay?
