What's wrong with spearfishing?

[Wayward Son]

I fail to see too much effort in spearfishing and scuba diving combined, you might as well sit there with a fork in your hand.

Clearly you have never tried it. often feelings and facts do not agree with each other.

 

[Charlie99]

Spearfish has a lot of things going for it ----- such as no unwanted bycatch.

The only problem I see is that in a lot of fish populations the most prolific spawners are the very large, most mature fish, and those are the very ones that some spearfishers go after.

For most people, meat and fish are items bought at a grocery store without much thought as to how they got there. Acquiring your food up close and personal just makes the source more obvious.

 

[CBulla]

I'm trying to remember the last time I had a shark near me while spearing and coming up totally blank. Bait and line... it works in a pinch, however I've got an issue with left behind trash....

Check this out, Boca Grande Pass Clean-up 2006 - ffestpirate and myself cleaning up the remanants of the past years fishing tourney and all the activities in between. Hook and bait.. and more...

edit -- I'm finding it incredibly tough to believe that folks are under the presumption spear fishing is easy. It's not walking up to a cow with a bangstick and dropping the bovine on the spot because its to dumb to know your going to kill it now.

 

[ReefGuy]

Spoken like someone who has never done it. Contrary to what non-spearfishermen believe, the fish don't just line up waiting to be shot. When you're on scuba, the fish knows you're there and they do treat you like a predator.

Spearfishing on scuba is no more or less ethical than spearfishing while freediving. They each have their advantages and disadvantages.

My main interest in spearfishing is not the thrill of the kill, but to get dinner. I don't buy fish from the store because I don't support commercial fishing.

As for spearfishing being segregated. That's up to the boat captain. Period. If it really concerns you, then you should ask when booking if spearfishing is allowed, and consider another charter if it is. That being said, I only spearfish if everyone on the boat does, which is not a problem using the charter I use, they cater to spearfishermen.

I fail to see too much effort in spearfishing and scuba diving combined, you might as well sit there with a fork in your hand.

 

[OWSI176288]

nothing's wrong with it...and in some instances it might even be beneficial to the ecosystem....as long as one follows the rules/regulations to prevent over harvesting/breeding stock depletion. Wildlife managers set catch limits for a reason.

 

[evil_xander]

Clearly you have never tried it. often feelings and facts do not agree with each other.

No, I didn't, and I don't plan to. Spearfishing, or fishing of any kind, is not my cup of tea, regardless of tanks or no tanks on my back.

My conclusion is solely based on the fish behavior while I'm scuba diving. Hence, I see no sport in scuba spearfishing. Freediving is a different story.

But hey, it's a free world out there (at least some parts of it), do whatever pleases you.

 

[Lamnid]

sll good replies. I mean spearfishing is the most sustainable method by far. As a vegetarian I don't eat meat (and yes that includes fish - will people stop asking me that!), but I do support the food chain as it's what keeps nature in motion. I think that this is a nice way to bring things closer to how they're meant to be done - yes you're using a tool with the speargun but hey - at least you're getting your hands dirty and so are not a hypocritical feeder by allowing someone else to kill for you. I just like the concept.

 

[fishoutawater]

I've never sprearfished before, but I'd like to try it sometime. Up here though, you can only shoot certain species, like carp and catfish. Game fish like bass aren't allowed as far as I know.
And I know nothing about saltwater spearfishing.
What species of fish are legal to spear on reefs? I do know some pelagics are, like tuna and dolphin and such, but right now I can't think of one reef fish that can be taken with spear. I'm sure there are some. I just don't know of them. For that matter, I don't even know which reef fish are even edible.

 

[Wayward Son]

When you start hunting them, their behavior changes.

I see this who "unethical to hunt on scuba", "it's too easy" claim made all the time. It is almost always made by some one who has not tried it, and usually by someone who lives someplace where it not only is not legal, it never has been during their lifetime. So they make such a valuation based soley on what they've come to see as "normal", having no direct experience with the reality of something different.

Our fishieries are managed differently than they are in europe. Which is not to say it's perfect, it's not, but it is different.

I've done both, not just a few times to sample it but quite a lot. Anyone who thinks it's a cakewalk is welcome to come diving with me. Buy yourself a license & come on out. I'll loan you a gun & you can dazzle me with the heaping piles of huge fish I'm sure you'll bag your first time out

 

[stevetim]

Let me put it this way.

It is more humane for any of us to spearfish. This is why: When we as a consumers on a global level catch and eat our own fish, this is one less vote given to the fishing industry to go out and cast their widecatch nets that have no discrimination whatsoever with what they catch. Only the depth of the nets can even come close to discerning what they catch. Even line-caught fish have less chance of survival than any fish sighted first by a spearfisher.

So when I hear people complain that spearfishing is "inhumane" and we might as well float in the ocean with forks, I laugh.

The less fish I buy at market, the less fish in demand for the nets to catch.