Views on underwater hunting

[Akimbo]

Scallops, you pick them up off the bottom and abalone you pick them off whatever surface they have decided to stick to. ...

We only have rock scallops in California so there is a fair amount of work to break them free of the rock. Some people just open them on the bottom and take the half of the shell with the mussel. The Fish & Game people will count one scallop as two if you cut one mussel in half. There is a daily limit of 10.

 

[BTravlin]

Have never hunted myself but am looking forward to bagging some lionfish in Cozumel next month and that will probably be the extent of my hunting. Used to gather scallops when I lived in the Florida panhandle years ago and loved it. I have no problems with others hunting and/or gathering as long as they do so responsibly.

 

[Sas]

We only have rock scallops in California so there is a fair amount of work to break them free of the rock. Some people just open them on the bottom and take the half of the shell with the mussel. The Fish & Game people will count one scallop as two if you cut one mussel in half. There is a daily limit of 10.

Oh interesting! I didn't know about rock scallops.

Bag limit is 100 here, no size limit. It's easy to find 100 of them in about half an hour.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Oh interesting! I didn't know about rock scallops.

Bag limit is 100 here, no size limit. It's easy to find 100 of them in about half an hour.

Our scallops sometimes are hard to spot, they can look like a rock. Usually when cruising along a wall you might see them in cracks or if it's a site that hasen't been dove much they can be right out in the open. Sometimes we can get the whole shell off whole but normally we spot them by their "smile", that's when they are slightly open feeding and the orange mantle can be seen. Right then is the time to get out the biggest knife you can find and slide it into the shell and cut one side of the meat loose from the shell so the scallop can't slam shut. I use one of those old school Aqualung pig stickers that everybody makes fun of, they work the best.
The cleaned meats can be jumbo size, sometimes as big as 6 to 7 cm in diameter and 3 cm thick, like the size of a big biscuit. The overall shell size can be up to 20 cm or bigger.
Ten of those makes a meal for 4 people. I sautee them in white wine, garlic, olive oil and a little lemon. I leave the inside almost raw and the flavor is like candy to me.

 

[SC_Hoaty]

Underwater or on land - eat what you harvest, and I have no issue. It gets a little complicated if you don't eat what you kill. We don't need to go into that here, since I don't think the topic is trophy hunting of exotic sea creatures.

 

[vladimir]

If you eat wild-caught seafood it is clearly hypocritical to object to its harvest by sustainable means. And farmed seafood is often worse for the environment than wild-caught. But from a fisheries management perspective, I believe that substantial reserves should be off-limits completely to harvest, that others should be restricted to sport fishermen, and that Japanese trawlers, for example, should stay within 200 miles of the Japanese coast. I also don't want to dive with hunters, but that's a practical consideration, not an ethical one.

 

[TMHeimer]

I checked "avid" being that I am a shell collector and occasionally poke spear flounders (about 6 per year). 100 rock scallops in half an hour is way more than any mollusc species I've taken, but I know that at least around here scallop populations are in no danger, so that seems OK. No doubt there will be lots of fireworks in this thread.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Commercially caught seafood is by far the most wasteful method of catch.
Something like one third of fish caught are discarded as bycatch and dumped back into the ocean. On top of that how much seafood gets wasted in speed cleaning and also in going bad in meat cases in the market.
I'll bet that when it's all said and done probably only half the commercially caught seafood actually makes it into the consumer's stomach.
Scarcity of fish and thus skyrocketing prices to cover costs will hit the commercial industry hard in the next 15 to 20 years. If it keeps up like it is I'll say that in 25 years commercial fishing worldwide will be completely done, no more fish.
I also wouldn't be a bit surprised if countries go to war over ocean territories.

But anyway, back to hunting or not hunting. I take fish also but I limit my take to just what I can eat. I don't go out just for the sport of it, I go out for the food.

Spearfishing competitions irk me because it's all about inflated egos and the trophy, they could care less about the food. Spearfishing competition yahoos also give honest food gatherers a bad name and give the anti sport fishing legislators plenty of amunition to use against everyone incuding guys like me just trying to go out and get something to eat.
I wish they wouldn't have them, I really don't see the point.

I wouldn't be very popular over on spearboard, I know.
It's a flat out blood thirsty kill fest over there.

 

[captain]

Commercially caught seafood is by far the most wasteful method of catch.
Something like one third of fish caught are discarded as bycatch and dumped back into the ocean. On top of that how much seafood gets wasted in speed cleaning and also in going bad in meat cases in the market.
I'll bet that when it's all said and done probably only half the commercially caught seafood actually makes it into the consumer's stomach.
Scarcity of fish and thus skyrocketing prices to cover costs will hit the commercial industry hard in the next 15 to 20 years. If it keeps up like it is I'll say that in 25 years commercial fishing worldwide will be completely done, no more fish.
I also wouldn't be a bit surprised if countries go to war over ocean territories.

But anyway, back to hunting or not hunting. I take fish also but I limit my take to just what I can eat. I don't go out just for the sport of it, I go out for the food.

Spearfishing competitions irk me because it's all about inflated egos and the trophy, they could care less about the food. Spearfishing competition yahoos also give honest food gatherers a bad name and give the anti sport fishing legislators plenty of amunition to use against everyone incuding guys like me just trying to go out and get something to eat.
I wish they wouldn't have them, I really don't see the point.

I wouldn't be very popular over on spearboard, I know.
It's a flat out blood thirsty kill fest over there.

A lot of bravado goes on on spearboard but just like rod and reel fishermen all state and federal laws apply to spearfishemen so you can't single them out for taking the same limit a rod and reel fisherman would. The only difference is most fish caught on a hook don't bleed so it seems more tidy and humane.

 

[DeusVerto]

As both an active diver and a part-time firearms instructor, I see an obvious need for some type of spear-fishing safety awareness. That said, I've not been spearfishing myself in a very long time.

Of course, this thread is more about the "morality" of hunting than it is about diver safety. Frankly, I've not heard of one diver shooting another with a spear underwater, and although there must have been some incidents along the way, I doubt many would consider it a "problem".

At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself if you're personally okay with man's status as a predator at the top of the food chain. I do see an apparent moral hypocrisy when one allows someone else to do their animal killing for them, as in the case of chicken or beef and yet railing in opposition to others doing it themselves.