Charters and Spearfishing

[Drew Sailbum]

It seems like differing dive practices in various areas catch some folks by surprise. So how much research should the travelling diver do?

I talk to a lot of divers from all areas of the States, and each has a slightly different take on what "local" diving is to them. In some areas it is synonomous with lobstering. Other places it is wreck diving. From the sounds of things in this thread, perhaps spearfishing is an activity which has spots of higher regional popularity? Maybe I'm off base.

A few of these folks are quite surprised when some of those sorts of popular diving activities are not available here. We don't have wrecks suitable for recreational scuba on this end of the island, and local laws prohibit activities such as spearfishing and lobstering using scuba.

Is it the responsibility of our shop to provide such information to potential customers who do not ask about these activities, or should it be up to the person to ask about the availability of such things?

 

[The Kraken]

Well, back to the basis of the thread . . .
Is it the responsibility of the boat owner to expressley outline activities allowed aboard the boat or is it the responsibility of the diver to inquire.

 

[getwet2]

I would say "Eco-Terrorist" is a little TOO much. It's the boat owners choice what to allow and not allow on their boat. You should have probably asked before booking like others have stated, maybe there's not much spearfishing in that area and it was an oversite on the dive operators part to assume you just wanted to dive but it was also an oversite on your part to assume that you could spearfish off their boat without asking first.

I personally would not want to go on a recreational dive charter that was also allowing spearfishing at the same time. If you want to dive, dive. If you want to fish, fish.

 

[cdiver2]

Running a boat is like any other service industry, If I am paying its not my job to do the research, it is the servicers job to disclose ANY restriction and or provide for the clients needs. Thats why you gotta love the Ritz, and why they will stay in business long after others have come and gone. Service at least GOOD service is about SERVICE.
Rich

So when you have your charter boat and I come along and dive from it and things are not what I expected "its your fault"
Can I have my money back.

 

[zboss]

Your comment about " extra room to store their crap " should have several of the photographers with fresh water rinse buckets and camera tables sliding up to support you!!!

Point taken... but most of the boats I dove off don't have the rinse buckets either.

In Virginia Beach we are usually told that we have to wait for the spearo's to come back up before we can begin our dive. Even WITH the ice chest, we still get a lot of flys. There must be several hundred at any point after reaching just a few miles from shore.

BTW - I don't care about the principle of Spearfishing - to each their own...

 

[simbrooks]

To my knowledge there are no Spearfishing only charterboats you want to pay they will take you out if you dont like to fish/spearfish there are plenty of non spearo charters.

Looking around in the past to see about charters i recall seeing a few trips on many charters that were marked "Spearfishing or Lobstering Trip", some down to the Dry Tortugas, others out of the Space Coast. They may not be spearfishing and lobstering year round, but they certainly cater to the hunters needs on those trips and warn non-hunters off those trips with the type of trip. I also know a good few LDS's and dive clubs around here that also run trips purely for that. Now these dates on those charters and those trips with the clubs and shops i avoid. There seems to be plenty of opportunity to hunt and for boats to only carry them rather than needing to mix it up. One club i know is heading out for a midnight hunt off some boat the minute the mini-season starts again.

 

[FredT]

I am sorry i do not agree with this line of thought, in some places they tried this argument with sharks, if we dont catch them the next place up the coast will. Look what happened we kill approx 100 million sharks a year worldwide and yes i know that a lot of that is commercial fishing but i personally know of one boat with 12 spearfisherman that in 3 hours killed 20 sharks

ANY species once targeted by the commercial harvesters is doomed. Large AJ's were once common in the northern gulf of mexico. A year after they showed up on the restaraunt menus the large ones were effectivly gone. (large=> 5' fork length) They were targeted after the collapse of the grouper fishery.

Recreational fishing by any method is easily controlled as to species size and numbers caught. Commercial guys tend to rape the reef. "Regulations" applied to the rec fishery can take effect immediatly. The commercial guys due to the effective lobbying they do are often given several years warning of a reg change, which means the regs are always several years too late to "save" the fishery.

The basic rule should be that if ANY rec fishing for a species is allowable, then spearfishing should be at the top of the list of acceptable methods since the bycatch is effectively zero after the diver calibrates his eyeball. A hook and line fisherman working a fish population near the minimum size length will often kill several times his "legal" limit every trip even if he follows the best "catch and release" guidelines. At best the survival rate for those released is 75%. Many more exhausted and released fish are eaten on the way back to the bottom.

BTW to collect 20 sharks in 3 hours the local shark population had to be relatively healthy. My personal opinion is that the harvest should be distributed though. Excluding the transients which are regulated to 1 or 2 per trip I limit my take to one or 2 fish of each target species per site.

"Resident" fish are what the charter boat operator has to "sell" to the average tourist diver. The discouragement of the sport of spearfishing has more to do with the health of their pocketbook than the health of the reef community. The tourist diver captains take herds of often beginner divers to the SAME spots every day. Those spots are chosen more for their range from the dock than the health of the ecosystem. It's only polite to not harvest resident species on those sites. Off any coastline there are generally 3 or 4 spots that see the bulk of the cattle boats. Taking pelagics and other migratory species, especially the larger migratory predators, do those sites no harm. Pullling a large transient fish vacuum off the site may actually help the smaller resident fish to survive.


FT

 

[FredT]

In Virginia Beach we are usually told that we have to wait for the spearo's to come back up before we can begin our dive. Even WITH the ice chest, we still get a lot of flys. There must be several hundred at any point after reaching just a few miles from shore.

Those have to be coming from somewhere. Flies are not native to seawater. Passing close downwind of a shrimper or other commercial boat, or even a light or buoy structure, can give even a clean ship a healthy collection of flies. Barring that it's a housekeeping issue. The deck and any other surface where fish have been needs to be washed clean with fresh seawater BEFORE IT DRIES! Gutting the fish on the platform, thoroughly rinsing it before bringing it on board and placing it directly into the ice chest is a good thing too. Placing fish on a carpet, mat, or other absorbent surface is generally a bad idea.

FT

 

[jlayman800]

I fail to see how the eco-terrorism link fits here -- did she spike your tank with a nasty gas? Did she sabotage equipment? Did she try and run over spearfishermen with her boat?


Perhaps you're just being a bit liberal with the terrorism tag? It seems to be the "in" thing these days...

Not at all. This person knowingly caused me to spend hundreds of dollars for a dive weekend and fully intended to limit the activities on that dive weekend without telling me. The same person took my money and then told me about the limiting policies. I believe an ecological terrorist is exactly what she is. Just like somebody that ties theirself to a tree to prevent it from being harvested. I stop short of running the chain saw through them, but I will actively let people know who they are and how dishonest they are. The name of the shop is (edited by moderator). I would include an email but I erased this person from my phone directory after the weekend was over. By the way, they were very nice to me on the dive. My only whine is about the spear fishing.

I only ran into this once before, about 5 years ago, on (edited by moderator) did the same thing. A lot of people who have suggested that I should know better and ask first are right. I hope I have learned my lesson.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I have edited the names of the businesses out of the previous post. Naming dive charters as eco terrorists is a bit over the top.

If anyone really wants that information, please PM the poster involved.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)