Ethics in Spearfishing
- Thread starter PatMyGreen
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Legal doesn't always equal ethical.
Hune what you are going to eat. Eat what you kill. Sharp points, taking high percentage shots, making every effort to collect wounded animals. Matching skill level to quarry.
Hunters ethics don't vary by what is being hunted.
TwoBit
Hune what you are going to eat. Eat what you kill. Sharp points, taking high percentage shots, making every effort to collect wounded animals. Matching skill level to quarry.
Hunters ethics don't vary by what is being hunted.
TwoBit
100days-a-year
Contributor
Ethics and morals are 2 different concepts with ethics generally being more about conducting oneself in accordance with custom and morals being about conducting oneself in accordance with one's own beliefs.Those are generalizations of course and English is slippery.
My ethical beliefs are
To shoot within the law as to size,species and location of area to be dove.
Not to endanger myself or others in the process.
My moral beliefs are.
To not harvest species that are not going to be eaten by me or given to someone who will.
Not to harvest more than I believe can be consumed within it's shelf life in my deep freeze(some species are seasonal and we try to keep enough to last a while)
To be informed about the health and viability of the desired species and what techniques minimize my impact.
Great Idea Pat,maybe Rick can pull a few out as stickies or even sticky the thread.
My ethical beliefs are
To shoot within the law as to size,species and location of area to be dove.
Not to endanger myself or others in the process.
My moral beliefs are.
To not harvest species that are not going to be eaten by me or given to someone who will.
Not to harvest more than I believe can be consumed within it's shelf life in my deep freeze(some species are seasonal and we try to keep enough to last a while)
To be informed about the health and viability of the desired species and what techniques minimize my impact.
Great Idea Pat,maybe Rick can pull a few out as stickies or even sticky the thread.
RockHunter
Registered
Only kill what you will eat I will hunt well populated species only.
Wayward Son
Contributor
Kudos for the post, Pat. I tend to agree by & large, except that I'm not as good as your crew yet so not quite as selective yet. It will likely come, but the reality is that I don't get out near as much as I should. Certainly not often enough to consider myself really good at this right now.
I particularly agree with your definition of sport. Some may regard is such, but when it comes to hunting -land or sea- I've never really though of it as being a sport. it's what I do & I really don't intend to give the game any advantage that i don't have to
I particularly agree with your definition of sport. Some may regard is such, but when it comes to hunting -land or sea- I've never really though of it as being a sport. it's what I do & I really don't intend to give the game any advantage that i don't have to
holdingmybreath
Contributor
and of course.. you're all freediving while spearing fish right?
why ?
as long as you are doing it within the regulations of that location, it still falls under ethical (which is the topic of this thread)
e.g. in Florida - you can do it on scuba or freediving etc. but not on rebreathers.
in some other locations, no spearguns on scuba - perhaps only hawaiian slings or maybe just free diving ....
cmburch
Contributor
For me both about 75% freediving and about 25% on SCUBA. See SpearBoard for more on freediving. Also this thread may have 10+ times the response on SpearBoard. And 100 times on BloodyDecks.
It looks as if most (or all) of you are fishing salt water and my guess is that diving conditions in freshwater lakes is quite different.
First, I consider spearfishing as BOTH hunting and sport. As a hunter your goal is to outsmart your prey. Learn to think like they do so that you can learn their habits and know when and where they may be lurking. You have to learn whether they are going to be on covers or structures. You need to find covers of different depths and know what depth they may be in at different times of the year. You don't just drop down and spear a fish. You sneak in slowly from the side and once you see the cover (sometimes vis is only about 3-5 feet) you stop, hold your breath (since walleye are easily spooked) and wait to see if anything swims by. If not then you attempt to "call" them. As a sport, you are always trying to find the "big" one. I also try for a head shot, not just because I don't want to destroy a fillet but because I don't want my husband lecturing me on my shooting ability.
The only fish I seek are walleye and crappie. And our limit of walleye is only 2 and our season is only about 3 months long, so we tend to let marginal fish swim by so that we can pack the freezer with larger fish. Catfish are also legal in our area but I do not enjoy eating them, so we don't shoot them.
I don't understand the remark about banning tournaments since they are not "catch and release". We are still eating the fish that are shot. I don't shoot in tournaments but my husband travels to the gulf a couple times a year to do so. And using him as an example, I know when he is shooting competitively he comes home with fewer fish that when he just goes for the hunt because when you are shooting competitively you are passing up several legal fish in hopes of a "winner" swimming by. Thus, if you want to decrease the amount of fish that are speared, we need to go to tournament fishing only (I am not recommending this though).
Thanks for listening...
First, I consider spearfishing as BOTH hunting and sport. As a hunter your goal is to outsmart your prey. Learn to think like they do so that you can learn their habits and know when and where they may be lurking. You have to learn whether they are going to be on covers or structures. You need to find covers of different depths and know what depth they may be in at different times of the year. You don't just drop down and spear a fish. You sneak in slowly from the side and once you see the cover (sometimes vis is only about 3-5 feet) you stop, hold your breath (since walleye are easily spooked) and wait to see if anything swims by. If not then you attempt to "call" them. As a sport, you are always trying to find the "big" one. I also try for a head shot, not just because I don't want to destroy a fillet but because I don't want my husband lecturing me on my shooting ability.
The only fish I seek are walleye and crappie. And our limit of walleye is only 2 and our season is only about 3 months long, so we tend to let marginal fish swim by so that we can pack the freezer with larger fish. Catfish are also legal in our area but I do not enjoy eating them, so we don't shoot them.
I don't understand the remark about banning tournaments since they are not "catch and release". We are still eating the fish that are shot. I don't shoot in tournaments but my husband travels to the gulf a couple times a year to do so. And using him as an example, I know when he is shooting competitively he comes home with fewer fish that when he just goes for the hunt because when you are shooting competitively you are passing up several legal fish in hopes of a "winner" swimming by. Thus, if you want to decrease the amount of fish that are speared, we need to go to tournament fishing only (I am not recommending this though).
Thanks for listening...
holdingmybreath
Contributor
just a really bad personal thing with me I guess... just could not help making the remark. I guess regulations make things ethical don't they? (sorry, couldn't help making that remark either)
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