"Ethical" Tournament setup in

[billder99]

Four months ago, we set up a spearfishing club here in Loreto, Baja. I have never been to a tournament, but we want to start holding them here. Spearfishing is a VERY sensitive subject in this area, living right in a Federal Marine Park. Like any kind of hunting, many people dislike the idea. Also, the pangueros hate it that spearos consistently take bigger fish than rod&reel fisherman. The rules allow limited spearfishing, but we have to tread very softly down here.

Need advice from you guys that have done some (or many) tournaments. I have seen tourneys with prizes for biggest fish, and most fish, and most weight... all of these categories will be a problem here. The very biggest fish are "breeders", thus unethical... "most fish" and "most weight" appears more like a slaughter than a sporting event at weigh-in time. How can we structure a fun and challenging tournament without offending the local population and the tree huggers?

Bill

 

[josedesucre]

I have (unsucessfully) floated some ideas about this in the past, trying to minimize the "killing" aspects of the tournaments, but I don't think there is any way to have a spearfishing competition without taking some fish. My suggestion would be to set limits regarding the species and number of pieces that any one can catch. But you will still have to count them, and weight them. Then, if you have the time (more than one day) and want to really have fun, you can organize competitions that dont involve killing, for instance: target shooting in a swimming pool, treasure hunting in a designated area where you drop golden painted rocks, long distance underwater swimming with fins (in a pool, same as dynamic apnea). Good luck and, most importantly, have fun.

 

[spaghetti]

Before anything, follow this advice: make agreements so that the speared fishes shall be given to Salvation Army or groups like that, I mean to any local organization providing a free meal service for the less fortunate people. That's what we do in my country, even in the major federal competitions such as the National championship et cetera.
If the fish will be eaten by someone at the end of the day, and especially if that someone are people who NEED a free meal, then the "slaughter" will be more likely to be socially accepted, or at least this is what happens here. This allows us to say that we've not been killing, but that we've been fishing, which makes a big difference IMHO.

 

[Oldsarge]

Both the Neptunes and the Fathomiers have contests in which only one fish of any given species (and there are a very limited number of acceptable species) may be taken. If your contestents are honorable, you have no problems. Otherwise, you would have to have a monitor on each boat. That being said, you could pull it off the same way.

 

[scrounger]

Pick a fish with very healthy numbers as the main prize, then limit it to one or two types that can be taken and count. Then you allow the one fish per type to be counted towards the totals. there is a tournament here that only allows one fish to be entered I think. I don't know the minimum size regulations where you are but around here all the fight to be entered in the competition must be a few inches over what the regulations say. The donation of the fish will do nothing but help you. make it clear to the competitor that you want or will make them to give up the catch.

 

[deckhand mike]

Maybe you should have a photo contest, haha. If it's legal and it's local spearos just be responsible and don't prance around on the beach with your fish. Hold it someplace that the whole community isn't going to be viewing your contest. You have a right to fish, don't bend over for tree huggers and if the panga guys get all pissy have it mandatory that you employ a local boat service to enter the contest. Work with the locals and always tip your deckhand!

 

[billder99]

Some great ideas guys, thanks. "Most" of you understand that spearfishing is a priveledge and not a right, and that the priveledge can be taken away. In Mexico, it is also very easy to be deported even if you live here and own property... best to follow the rules and respect local "sensitivities".

I like the idea on the Big Fillet Giveaway to needy folks... we could have a fish BBQ for the local orphanage, or an Optimists fundraiser. The 1 or 2 fish rule would probably be good as well.

How long do tournaments usually last?

 

[Old Man Dave]

Sea angling competions have been having the same problems. Whatever becomes of the fish afterwards (yes spaghetti's right about disposal) the weighing in of large amounts of obviously dead fish can cause problems. Anglers have tried catch and release (which works in freshwater) bur not so successful with sea fish and definitely not much use to spearo's.

The most popular competition is the specimen hunt. Nominate all the species found in your waters that you could spear. Leave out any endangered, small or rare species or anything illegal to hunt. Specify a minimum size (and maximum if you want). The winner is the person catching most species and gaining most points (more points for certain species). You only need to catch one of each species within the weight limits. Catching the biggest fish gains you no extra points. So once you have caught a specimen of a species you need catch no more of that species. Provided you have a good range of types of fish then this type of competition is a real test of skill. Only a relatively small number of fish are killed. You can give more points for some species than others and set weight limits to alter the degree of difficulty.

The only time this doesn't work is if you only have 2 or 3 species in your area, which is rare. In that case you can factor in a number ie 3 of each species instead of 1.

This system works very well and we now see little in the way of mass slaughter, maximum weight/biggest fish competitions. It is also definitely much more skillful.

Dave

 

[deep thinker]

Our tournies normally work like that too. You can weigh in a max of ten fish no more than 2 per specie. You get a point per specie and a point per certain weight above say 1 kg for most fish, with no more than 4 points per species. Weight of specie ofcoarse varying with legal size but normally a bit above. If you weigh in a undersized fish according to legal limits, your disqualified and if you weigh in more than 10 fish your also disqualified. It does take more skill and is actually more fun too because alot of times different species has different habitats and tendencies, so you will be diving more than one or two spots and also a larger range of depth and apply more styles of hunting too

 

[parrotthead228]

What about turning it into a "cookoff" for the locals. Each team is responsible for cooking their kill and then the winners are not only judged by their fish size but also for their culinary skills. Charge the locals a few pesos and let them eat until their hearts are content! Pleasing people is alot easier when you just fed them. Just a thought that came to mind. and it sounds like fun to me!

 

[apnea_beast]

the feeding the locals thing is a great idea. you could also weigh shot placement into the scoring. add 25% for a headshot. subtract 50% for a gutshot or anything in the back half of the fish. in addition, you could also multiply every divers overall score by their headshot percentage and add that on to the total score. another thing would be to set up specific lengths and weights that people would shoot for instead of overall biggest. try to get closest to 20lbs or closest to 30" or something like that. or you could have a slot limit for certain species that rewards divers who shoot fish with in it and penalizes those who don't.

 

[apnea_beast]

you could also get a bunch of booze and have a drunken spearfest orgy with the locals afterwards. show em a good party and im sure they'll want to host your contest next year

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Both the Neptunes and the Fathomiers have contests in which only one fish of any given species (and there are a very limited number of acceptable species) may be taken. If your contestents are honorable, you have no problems. Otherwise, you would have to have a monitor on each boat. That being said, you could pull it off the same way.

I have only competed in two tournaments in my life, but both of them were sponsored by the Neptunes. One was the Bill Kroll meet at the Hotel Coral north of Ensenada. You could only weigh in one fish, but there was nothing that said only one of each species could be taken, just that only one could be weighed in.

There were lots of yellowtail on a local seamount. I shot one and quit shooting them, but it seems that a lot of competitors kept shooting in hopes that the next one would be bigger than the last one. People who didn't bring their own boats were shoehorned into pangas with no room for cooler and ice. The fish rotted in the sun in the bottom of aluminum pangas, and then piles of them were stacked on the docks. I was embarrassed while the other hotel guests looked at the spectacle, and this is one reason why I don't enter competitions any more.

So anyway, my point is that it isn't enough to say that only one fish of each species can be weighed in. If you want to avoid looking bad, you have to have a way to disqualify people who shoot and sort.

Another suggestion would be to have the weigh-in at a totally private place where no one but competitors will see it. That is one nice thing about the Neptunes Blue Water meet held at Catalina every year. The weigh-in is at a cove with no general access from roads, and you have to anchor your boat off the beach and take a dinghy in to even see it. They can do whatever the hell they want, with no witnesses.

 

[Mr. X]

...Spearfishing is a VERY sensitive subject in this area, living right in a Federal Marine Park. Like any kind of hunting, many people dislike the idea. Also, the pangueros hate it that spearos consistently take bigger fish than rod&reel fisherman. The rules allow limited spearfishing, but we have to tread very softly down here.

.... How can we structure a fun and challenging tournament without offending the local population and the tree huggers?

Bill

If spearfishing is that sensitive in your area, I would seriously consider not holding a competition. (Presumably angling competitions are equally contentious in your area?) On the other hand, a public display of support will raise the profile of spearing in the area, which might get you more consideration when restrictions are made (for good & bad ) by the growing army of land managers.