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Ancient Hawaiian Spearos?

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demasoni

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Feb 3, 2005
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I was at the Maui Ocean Center today and realized that in their section about ancient Hawaiian fishing, there was a display indicating that fishermen dove to 200ft to spearfish!

I sure would like to verify this claim. If true, it's certainly perplexing, of course the ancients didn't have the modern equipment that we have, but it makes you wonder about how they did it.

Inhale, exhale, variable weight, noseclip?
 

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Wow, that's quite the claim. I don't doubt anything, but I'm curious where that number came from.

Erik
 
Personally I do not doubt their skills for doing so, but wonder whether they'd really have a reason for going so deep. In that time they certainly did not suffer from overfishing, and I guess they could catch plenty of fish, and collect seafood in much shallower depths.
 
Sounds fishy to me but that is the depth that the most desired fish (Ahi) spend most of their time. Legends ??
 
I like legends and myths. Facts are less important anyway.
 
The other fish I can think of around today that would be worth diving that deep for are opakapaka and onaga (deep water snappers). Diving for black coral?

I'm not sure if I doubt their ability to dive that deep. I remember watching a Tanya Streeter documentary called "Wild Tribe Reef Gypsies" where Tanya dives with the Bajau tribe in Indonesia. It was amazing to watch and I recall the tribe stating they hunt at 50m.

Wild Tribe - Reef Gypsies (Page 1 of 1) - View topic • sharethefiles.com

In the link, you see a screenshot in the lower right corner of a local diver holding a giant clam with nothing on but shorts and goggles and perhaps a noseclip! His homemade speargun was intriguing - simple yet effective.
 
I love this sort of thing -please try to find out some more.....
 
i think its true.. i once read of male native pearl diver that dive down to 100++ feet to get to the pearls and they are the subject of one study about the bends happening on freedivers. sadly i can`t remember the site. good point @ trux, maybe they are after some fish that may be of high value to them or maybe they use for some sort of a ritual uhmm.. like the passage of boyhood to man or a way to prove that one is worthy of leading.. sorry for the bad english... good day everyone.
 
demasoni said:
Diving for black coral?
Click to expand...

I dont think black coral was something they needed to go that deep for. Back then black coral grew up to 40-60 feet deep. It wasnt until the modern black coral divers desimated all the coral in shallows. I actually found a small bush of black coral in about 60ft of water just recently.

I dont think black coral was even something that was recognized to be of any value by the Hawaiians until Jack Ackerman started the harvest of it in the late 50s.

I could be wrong about that but just my thoughts.

dont the tahitian black pearl divers do similar feats?
 
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