Murder?!?!

[art-shark]

OK people, so I'm not the biggest fan of spearing...
"shooting fish in a barrel"

BUT!!! i have nothing against people that do it and
also respect the environment and eco-system.

I was recently on a dive in Mediterranean, Cyprus to be more precise.
As some of you may already know this area is rather over fished.

So i was disgusted when i came across a dead Moray Eel with a hole in its head,
presumably speared (have seen people scuba diving with spears at the same sight before).
Adding more wood to the fire the poor bastard was only about 1.5ft or 45cm...

Also may i add this is the second time i have seen this...

These are great creatures which are a lot of fun to see while diving,
so who would do this?

I would just like to get some of thoughts on the incident from people that spearfish...

 

[stu_in_fl]

i'd say, most people that spearfish (at least the ones i encounter here in Fl) shoot what they are going to eat....no illiegal (undersize/out of season/protected) or un-necessary killing.

of course as in anything, there's always going to be some a$*-hat who will do something stupid, but they are more the exception than the rule (and can be found in any sport / endeavour)

fish in a barrel is also incorrect - you try finding, shooting at and actually hitting a 24" or longer black grouper .... pretty f-ing difficult (i certainly never managed it)

[and thanks for giving me the opportunity to post and get rid of that stupid "you have not posted in a while" message ]

 

[art-shark]

Im sure its very hard and i bet i would be hopeless even if they were in a barrel

I completely understand what your saying, that there is always one person that ruins it for everyone else and gives them a bad name...
regardless of what it is they are doing.

I like fishing, always catch and release though, unless its for eating...
But I'm just a big fan of the marine environment, so i was really pissed off when i saw that...

thanks for the feed back

 

[scubadude79]

We all really need to respect the environment, not just so we don't destroy it but for moral sake. SCUBA divers are hopefully the type that would protect our treasured places that we visit, but there are always those sickos that ruin it for all.

 

[FritzCat66]

I was diving Jupiter with a bunch of spearos about a month ago where one of the hunters shot a gag under a ledge; pulling it out he realized there was something else on it and thought he was lucky and got a twofer, however he was disappointed to see he had actually speared a moray that just happened to be swimming unseen behind his target grouper.

Not making excuses, just observing that it's possible the speared moray was an honest accident like this one.

I chase and shoot fish as well, but since I'm shooting with a camera there's not as much collateral damage.

 

[Johnoly]

...(have seen people scuba diving with spears at the same sight before).

Most dive location communities are pretty tight knit and all talk to each other. Where I dive, an illegal fish had been speared last year and eventually we caught the person. He no longers dives in our area. All operators and captains talk, there rarely is secrets.

Did you tell any one and what was their reaction?

 

[art-shark]

I told the dive shop owners, and lots of other divers...
no one seemed impressed by the *******...

apparently there are plenty of laws over there,
but none of them are really enforced...

and being a tourist area you don't know if they have come and gone...

Thanks to everyone posting feed back, pretty cool to hear your stories and opinions.

 

[spt29970]

I was diving in the Channel Islands a few years ago, when a friend found a dead Horn Shark on the bottom. When he got back to the boat, he told the crew about it, and they looked pained and told him that it had happened the previous day. A diver had speared it and brought it to the boat to show his young children what a "real" shark looked like. He then threw it back in the water. What a way of passing his love of the ocean on to the next generation!

I have no problem with people who fish to eat, but to kill something just for the sake of killing it, makes no sense to me.

 

[Hank49]

Sunday my buddy speared a 28 inch black grouper out here on the reef. His spear went through the fish and stuck in a coral rock behind it and underneath. As he was trying to pull it up....and me helping....a moray came out and started eating the grouper. Luckily we pulled the spear out of the rock and got the fish up to the surface....minus his stomach tissue and entrails. hah. Now, that was a somewhat reasonable excuse to waste a moray. Let him find his own damn fish..

 

[scubadude79]

I was diving in the Channel Islands a few years ago, when a friend found a dead Horn Shark on the bottom. When he got back to the boat, he told the crew about it, and they looked pained and told him that it had happened the previous day. A diver had speared it and brought it to the boat to show his young children what a "real" shark looked like. He then threw it back in the water. What a way of passing his love of the ocean on to the next generation!

I have no problem with people who fish to eat, but to kill something just for the sake of killing it, makes no sense to me.

Oh, that is a great way to teach the kids how to respect the ocean. What a loser! :doh2: