In my opinion, it's not the amount of take that's most important (of course it has a big impact though) but it's having places that fish can be left in peace to grow big and spawn in that's most important to protect. I agree that myself as a freediver can probably outshoot many SCUBA divers during a day of spearfishing but the difference is that I am limited to certain depths and SCUBA divers are not (I have friends here who regularly spear on SCUBA down to 200 ft). And in the Bahamas because of the sling thing most people are limited even more so by depth. To me, 60 ft is a deep depth to use a sling. I prefer 30-45 ft. So that means (in a perfect world with no poaching) there is plenty of bottom that doesn’t get hunted over there and plenty of fish left to constantly replenish the resource that gets taken from the shallower water. As far as holding hands with the SCUBA divers. Why should I? A good chunk of the water bound rest of the World (S. Africa, Australia, most of the med - Greece, France, Italy, Spain, etc., Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Costa Rica, Bahamas etc, etc, etc,) feels it's wrong and has banned it. Why should I endorse it or associate myself with it in any way if I don't agree with it. And the assertion that if SCUBA spearfishing is banned then all spearfishing will eventually be banned is a fallacy. Most of the Countries I named above have had SCUBA spearfishing banned for a very long time (since at least the 70's for the Bahamas) and I've never heard of any talk from any of those countries about completely banning spearfishing. I don’t mean to start a fight here but this is just the way I feel, be it right or wrong and by me expressing my opinion does, by no means, imply that I feel anybody else’s opinions are ‘wrong’ or ‘stupid’. So, let’s please not turn this into another name calling, disrespectful pissing contest as what usually happens when this subject arises. Differing opinions and respectful debate is what public forums are supposed to be all about, not personal attacks and disrespectful behavior.
Scott
Scott