I'm 100% with OMD.
Ben, we don't have to be afraid of our own shadow.
You'd be hard pressed to find, in the whole world, another spearfishing community that is as much concerned as Deeperblue (meant as a community in its whole) with sustainability, selectivity, environment consciousness, respect for marine life and ethics of hunting.
But yet, like it or not, this is a spearfishing community.
I'll say it even louder: I bet my left testicle (not meaning that I have only one left: I'm betting the one of the two that's on the left) that NO other group, club, forum, internet or real life spearfishing community gives a higher value to environmental concerns as much as DBers as a whole do.
What is it that makes me think so?
Because DB is an international community. Our views (as a community in its whole) are not based on national or regional regulations, on local traditions, on peculiar issues and cultures...It's not black or white, cause what looks white in Europe may look black in America, et cetera.
Knowing that it's not black or white, we've made a friend of a universal common sense: if the damage done to marine life is minimal and sustainable, if it's just a couple fish taken for a meal or (why not?) for a trophy, if no endangered species have been offended, if no overdone killing has been committed, well nothing wrong has been done. And reverse is true as well, no matter what regulations allow: it's a moral concern.
After years of sharing experiences from the whole world, mixing together European competitive spearos and own-meal harvesters with Ocean trophy hunters and american scuba spearos et cetera et cetera et cetera, I think that the DB people have achieved an obvious conclusion about ethics, that is: respect the sea and listen to your heart, no matter what local regulations allow or prohibit.
Personally, and I'm speaking for one, not as a Deeperblue staff member but as an individual (and BTW: I'm the "one fish for dinner" type of hunter), I'm tired of these discussions. But keep 'em coming if you feel they're necessary.