Why hunt?

[Hank49]

I clean fish as soon as I get them on the boat. Then I ice them inside and out. Getting the guts out and chilling fast makes them better eating later. Plus, then when I get home all I have to do is wash the boat and gear.

 

[Holy Mackerel]

That is a BEAUTY! It is either a white sea bass or totuava, a related (protected) species of the Sea of Cortez. Good eating.

Yes, that fish is a White Sea Bass, Atractoscion Nobilis I plan to hunt them in the kelps off La Jolla this year...

 

[JustinW]

I'm not going to pretend that I have read all the posts but why hunt, thats a good question. Given that I have two choices if I am going to eat meat, I will always pick the hunting over store bought when reasonable.
Store bought beef: Raised in high concentrations where they are fed grains and a diet designed to plump them up. They walk in their own feces, are poked prodded and shuffled around in trucks. They are constantly around people. Bulls are castrated, all are branded with a hot iron, natural life is disrupted for their entire life, even insemination is artificial. In the end they are put on a feed lot in high concentrations, fed through a chute and lined up to be slaughtered assemblyline style, being stunned and bled out alive while other cows watch and realize their certain death.

Venison: This little bambi was born naturally, lived their entire life roaming whereever they want eating whatever they want. They are "free-range" and eat organic foods. Even if a hunter snipes one with a high powered rifle from long distance the end result being that any animal that is hunted is organic, free range, and since the food it ate for its lifetime was also growing naturally I haven't supported logging to clear fields or gas to run harvesters or any of that.

Ecologically speaking, its always better to hunt your food than to buy it in the store. When it comes to fish, I've never had bycatch while spearfishing either. My float tube and I burn less fuel than a 200 foot supertrawler that kills everything in its path.

 

[CBulla]

I hunt thus my family eats fresh, non-chemically enhanced, "organic" meat thats cleaned and prepared by me. Soon we'll be adding a small vegestable garden to go with that so we'll be exceptionally independant of the supermarkets for the feeding of me, my incredible wife, and my two outstanding young boys.

Show me a cost effective ($8 per pound buffalo doesn't count as cost effective, $.25 cents for a bullet that drops a 140# wild hog does - $15 sharing gas to shoot 4 to 6 20-35" red snapper, grouper, etc., counts to) way to provide clean meat that isn't shot up with steroids and antibiotics (farm raised seafood get this to) and we'll speak. Some 'alternatives' are nice short term substitutes but for me, not a long term solution.

Thats why I hunt. Thats why many folks I know hunt (man and woman - my wife shoots critters to). Not for sport or trophy.

 

[JustinW]

Venison steaks tonight were naturally delicious

 

[SwimJim]

The primary contribution of testosterone to male behaviour takes place in the womb where, in a symphony of precision, this hormone is released by the mother thus fixing the masculine nature of the male child. If this goes right, then the resulting baby boy already has the essential programming of the male exhibited by his subsequent choices of toys and favored activities. A tale handed down from the ancient Greeks describes a desperate mother's attempt to protect her son from kidnap and assassination. She dressed the boy in the clothes of a girl. With his long locks it was difficult to separate this one boy from the crowd of girls on the palace grounds. The intruders set up two tables laden with objects, one table with dolls and the other with weapons of war. There was a rush to the tables where the only child to clammer onto the table of weapons was the young prince. In modern times, experiments to "prove" that such behavior is "socialized" consistently failed. At puberty, testosterone production is increased which results in muscularity and various changes of degree (not kind) to the brain. Changes which serve to transition juvenile male behaviour to the challenges of adult life, including copulation and the inclination to provide for one's family by any means, including hunting if needs must. However, this atavistic push to hunt can express itself at any time including pre-puberty.

You all have too much time on your hands. Idle hands are the devils workshop you know. People who question hunting are the same ones who argue against wind generated power. They wake up and spend the first twenty minutes of thier day trying to figure out what offends them and then they go out and crusade against it. Sheesh.

jim

 

[JustinW]

Wild seafood is certainly cleaner than aquacultured seafood and since sport fishers use hook and line or spearguns we don't have longlines that catch indiscriminately or nets to foul up reefs or anything like that, so even if our fish are only as clean as a fish caught by longlining, its still less harsh on the environment. I also like that i can connect with nature more. Buying a salmon steak on a styrofoam meat tray is pretty darn artificial, and it makes it difficult to appreciate the origins. I prefer not to hire an assassin to do my killing, instead I will do it myself

 

[M60]

Hello Hank; Fresh is a matter of opinion. In some places fresh can be three weeks in a freezer; depending on how soon it was frozen after it was caught. Fresh? No in my kitchen. It really depends on what you want to spend your recreational dollar on, as far being expensive. There really is no comparison to fish just caught or speared to those that are in the ice for a few days to weeks. The flavor will hook you for life. I cook for a living. Try cooking two fillet's of fish. One you caught that day and a market one. Sample each and decide for your self. Bon appetite!....M60

 

[M60]

I hunt fish because I enjoy it. The day, the dive, the kill and cooking my catch. I also fought in Vietnam for two years. There is no comparison between the adrenaline rush of spear fishing and going toe to toe with an armed motivated foe. Testosterone?

 

[Cacia]

The primary contribution of testosterone to male behaviour takes place in the womb where, in a symphony of precision, this hormone is released by the mother thus fixing the masculine nature of the male child. If this goes right, then the resulting baby boy already has the essential programming of the male exhibited by his subsequent choices of toys and favored activities. A tale handed down from the ancient Greeks describes a desperate mother's attempt to protect her son from kidnap and assassination. She dressed the boy in the clothes of a girl. With his long locks it was difficult to separate this one boy from the crowd of girls on the palace grounds. The intruders set up two tables laden with objects, one table with dolls and the other with weapons of war. There was a rush to the tables where the only child to clammer onto the table of weapons was the young prince. In modern times, experiments to "prove" that such behavior is "socialized" consistently failed. At puberty, testosterone production is increased which results in muscularity and various changes of degree (not kind) to the brain. Changes which serve to transition juvenile male behaviour to the challenges of adult life, including copulation and the inclination to provide for one's family by any means, including hunting if needs must. However, this atavistic push to hunt can express itself at any time including pre-puberty.

I find the in-utero brain effects of hormones fascinating and needed to fully explore a question such as "why hunt?". certainly not the only contributing factor, but very influential in my view. I became interested when my x specialized in genital reconstruction of newborns that were born with ambiguous genitalia. (neither)