Spear fishing in the Bahamas while on the Aqua Cat live aboard

[loveIIdive]

I have a live aboard planned on the Aqua Cat in April. Can anyone direct me to the Bahamian information that I need or the paperwork needed to spear fish lion fish while on the Aqua Cat? I'll be using a Hawaiian sling. Any help with paperwork or information on how to get paperwork started would be greatly appreciated.

 

[diversteve]

Actually leave it home. Unless there's a recent exception for Lionfish:

What is the diving like? While the Northern Exumas are only 30 miles from Nassau, there are no daily dive operations in this area. You can experience truly virgin diving. The Exumas have walls starting at 40', as well as drift, reef, and shark dives. There is a large Blue Hole between Nassau and the Exumas. For over 30 years, much of the northern Exumas has been a National Underwater Park with no fishing, spear fishing or collecting allowed. Because of these laws, there are miles of undersea gardens in which coral, sponges and fish abound.

Dive liveaboard Aqua Cat FAQs

 

[H2O Gal]

Gee, if there isn't an exception for lionfish, there oughta be...

 

[wmperry]

You can spear them while freediving, but not on SCUBA. There WAS an exception for lion fish, but it was being abused (that grouper jumped right in front of that lion fish, I didn't want to let it go to waste!) so no more permits are being issued and the old ones have expired. At least that is what I heard from several captains while I was in the Bahamas with Blackbeard's and Stuart Cove's last week.