• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 44,280+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 516,210+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,441+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

Hall Of Shame

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
Maybe we should consider if these forum based competitions like FOM and Hall of Fame promote the correct values for a site where we are all so obviously concerned with conservation and the profile of our sport (or maybe thats just a minority too)? Perhaps these images of large fish/lobsters etc give the wrong impression of the sport to the general public, authorities and those new to spearfishing....
 
  • Like
Reactions: gutshot
It is all part of the sport, some people would like to see spearing disappear underground with secret handshakes and a strict moral code of fish of a certain size only,Newbs need not apply and other arcane stuff.
My view is that evryone starts somewhere, new spearos make mistakes with judgement of fish size and kill small fish, not necessarily undersize fish but small.
Many of these small fish will not survive anyway, that why fish produce thousands of eggs, better a small fish than a large breeding female IMO.

People don't start out in any sport being perfect and everyone needs guidance, sometimes the guidance may be in the form of humour, or maybe if the individual involved does not understand why the correction may be needed then the instruction can be more blunt.
BUT what any new sportman does not need is a loudmouth lying in the long grass and making sarcastic asides at every opportunity to anything and everything that they do not feel lives up to their own personal judgement.

Constructive criticism, please. Smart remarks and sarcasm, keep it to your self or don't bother posting.
 
It is all part of the sport, some people would like to see spearing disappear underground with secret handshakes and a strict moral code of fish of a certain size only,Newbs need not apply and other arcane stuff.
My view is that evryone starts somewhere, new spearos make mistakes with judgement of fish size and kill small fish, not necessarily undersize fish but small.
Many of these small fish will not survive anyway, that why fish produce thousands of eggs, better a small fish than a large breeding female IMO.

People don't start out in any sport being perfect and everyone needs guidance, sometimes the guidance may be in the form of humour, or maybe if the individual involved does not understand why the correction may be needed then the instruction can be more blunt.
BUT what any new sportman does not need is a loudmouth lying in the long grass and making sarcastic asides at every opportunity to anything and everything that they do not feel lives up to their own personal judgement.

Constructive criticism, please. Smart remarks and sarcasm, keep it to your self or don't bother posting.
Well said my man:friday
 
Maybe we should consider if these forum based competitions like FOM and Hall of Fame promote the correct values for a site where we are all so obviously concerned with conservation and the profile of our sport (or maybe thats just a minority too)? Perhaps these images of large fish/lobsters etc give the wrong impression of the sport to the general public, authorities and those new to spearfishing....

Ben this is an interesting post and you make some good points.

As the main originator even instigator of both the FOM and the HOF I would I'm sure be seen as biased. However, I most definitely have thought long and hard on these issues and have made a few contentious posts myself on fish size, large catches and publicity.

One issue was whether these competitions would encourage deliberate fishing just for the sake of the competition. The way in which the FOM is set up and run I believe does not encourage this. The prize has no monetary value (that's deliberate) and it's hard to actually target catching a winning fish in any way other than the normal fishing effort. The HOF could be seen to have an element of increased fishing for certain species just to get your name on the list but as yet I see no evidence of this.

Another issue is encouraging the capture of the large super breeder fish. There is no doubt that any competition has an element of this but is anyone actually catching fish that they would normally not do so just for the sake of the competitions. I doubt it. Also the FOM is by members vote not by % of the record and this enables smaller more unusual fish maybe caught by a newbie to stand alongside the mega bass. Again this was a deliberate ploy. The HOF is weight based so I suppose there could be some critisism there. I'm open to suggestions on that one.

Publicity is a big issue. Generally I feel the public do not feel bad about the trophy shot with the big single fish. Many interested parties might admire the capture but the shots of large numbers of fish is another story altogether. Both FOM and HOF are more or less single fish entry competitions and the total number of fish caught is small.

The HOF and the FOM bring a lot of pleasure to many DB members and presents a good face to the outside world, IMHO. They may not please everyone and could probably always be improved on but at some point we must raise our heads above the parapet and I don't think that this is a bad way to do it. Otherwise we could deny everything, do just our own thing and hope the world goes away and leaves us alone.

My twopence, for what it's worth.

Dave.
 
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.
 
Last edited:
Get me a pic 'n mix while your there buddy...rofl

Well thats not the right attitude to have, preaching on about being selective this and selective the other !!!

I might as well do a trolley dash right down the sweets aisle collecting all of the little tiny sweets i dont like and throwing them away when i get home, The big boxes of Roses and just eating my favourites, damaging the shelves as i go so they can't put any more back in for next week.

Hypocrite ;)
 
Last edited:
Maybe we should consider if these forum based competitions like FOM and Hall of Fame promote the correct values for a site where we are all so obviously concerned with conservation and the profile of our sport (or maybe thats just a minority too)? Perhaps these images of large fish/lobsters etc give the wrong impression of the sport to the general public, authorities and those new to spearfishing....

I had a bit of a think about this during a dive a few weeks ago when I found a big conger in a hole and realised that it would almost certainly get me first place in the HOF if I were to bring it home. I decided to leave it as I had already taken one conger in the spring after which I had decided to limit myself to an absolute maximum of one conger per year. The HOF is fun but I really don't think that it is going to have any great affect on hunting practices, especially as over time it will become increasingly hard to get a place in it.
As regards image of the sport I think that the focus on quality rather than quantity and the lack of prizes to be won makes it very different from traditional competitions.

FOM does of course provide the chance to win a great trophy (I'm very proud of the one I won last year) but again the focus is on quality and it is more a celebration of great dives people have had than an orgy of fish killing.

In any sport there will always be the desire to recognise achievement and I think Glowworm, OMD and others who set up HOF and FOM have provided us with the ideal method of doing so and one that is much better than the old style competitions. Thanks guys!
 
Last edited:
i have been out and shot mullet many time's why because they taste just as good as bass, and i have seen loads and i mean loads compared to everybodys favorite billy bass, guess what i will continue to do so
 
Nothing wrong with mullet , the taste is just a bit more variable.
 
yes it can be, my family and friends said that it is a very tasty fish, guess where i will be today and tomorrow yipeeeee
 
How we all should be......

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVejWKRJcxM]YouTube - spearfishing bass and mullet in the UK[/ame]

Proves a few points...
 
How we all should be......

YouTube - spearfishing bass and mullet in the UK

Proves a few points...
Well said Rob. Very enjoyable video and on my doorstep too. It's nice to see that some can learn and show maturity beyond thier experience and take the time to enjoy what the can see if they let it happen.
As usual, I'm with you all they way.
If only Carlsberg trained spearos roflroflrofl
 
  • Like
Reactions: spaghetti
Well said Rob. Very enjoyable video and on my doorstep too. It's nice to see that some can learn and show maturity beyond thier experience and take the time to enjoy what the can see if they let it happen.
As usual, I'm with you all they way.
If only Carlsberg trained spearos roflroflrofl

I'm going for a sponsorship deal :)
Posted via Mobile Device
 
DeeperBlue.com - The Worlds Largest Community Dedicated To Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing

ABOUT US

ISSN 1469-865X | Copyright © 1996 - 2024 deeperblue.net limited.

DeeperBlue.com is the World's Largest Community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving, Ocean Advocacy and Diving Travel.

We've been dedicated to bringing you the freshest news, features and discussions from around the underwater world since 1996.

ADVERT