poll -how many divers collect game ?

[MikeJacobs]

RichLockyer once bubbled... SNIP...We'll also occasionally crack open an urchin to feed the Garibaldi or Sheephead.

Just as an FYI, to illustrate how one person's limits are different from another's, I remember resenting the Vietnamese refugees who used to collect urchins from the tidepools south of Los Angeles until they (the urchins) almost disappeared... and here in SE Florida - I may be mistaken but I don't think so - the urchins are the only natural control for filimentatious algie killing our reefs.

It's a fragile environment, no doubt, and we all have our different limits. I'm with you, Rich, but I can see how this issue becomes hot for many real fast.

 

[MikeJacobs]

SOUTH DEVON once bubbled... I would be interested to know the percentage of divers that collect game and the percentage of divers which just enjoy interacting with the underwater world without feeling the need to kill everything they come across ... SNIP

There are those who would like to see you fed to a shark just for "interacting" with fish (see the "agitating fish with a mirror" thread) lol... there's a wide spectrum of tolerance zones among divers, for sure.

I'm not so sure the impact of the thousands of individual divers who hit our reefs every day here have any meaningful impact, compared to commercial outfits.

Congrats for wording the poll fairly objectively in spite of your obvious "bias" against hunting. That was well done.

 

[Soggy]

I hunt for lobster, but it is very well regulated. You can only take lobsters within a certain size range, no "v-notched" females, and no egg bearers. No spearing is allowed, and no lassos (whatever they are called). Just you, your hands, and maybe a tickle stick with a < 90 degree bend. We also can't take the claws unless we have the lobster to match. It isn't that easy and I frequently come up empty handed, but I've brought home probably 10-12 this year and had some nice dinners! Catching dinner when it fights back isn't too easy. I've had the bruises to show for it.

Hunting for food is cool. "Sport" hunting (killing just for the hunt) is ridiculous and reprehensible.

 

[Karl_in_Calif]

Abalone is a shellfish, like a big snail. They dont feel any pain.

 

[Soggy]

Karl_in_Calif once bubbled...
Abalone is a shellfish, like a big snail. They dont feel any pain.

How do you know?

 

[CincyBengalsFan]

Karl_in_Calif once bubbled...
Abalone is a shellfish They dont feel any pain.

Who says they don't feel any pain?

 

[Karl_in_Calif]

Soggy once bubbled...


How do you know?

Well, when I bite into them, they dont yell!

 

[Karl_in_Calif]

CincyBengalsFan once bubbled...



Who says they don't feel any pain?

They dont have a brain either. Hard to feel pain without a brain.

But then ... ah ... I better not pursue this. DEE told me to be nice to the rest of all of you all. So I am being nice ...

 

[Soggy]

Karl_in_Calif once bubbled...
Well, when I bite into them, they dont yell!

Yeah...the lobsters don't make any noise when I drop them in a pot of boiling water but I'm pretty darn sure they don't like it.

 

[Soggy]

Karl_in_Calif once bubbled...
They dont have a brain either. Hard to feel pain without a brain.

Well, I think a nervous system is a better qualification, which I believe they do have if they are animals.