Hiya
Unfortunately, hunting tuna is an expensive story. To put it into perspective, this is what MY costs were for doing a spearing charter:
Fuel for my vehicle to get to Harbour: R100.00
Launching Fees: R60.00
20 x 5kg's box's bait for chum: 20xR40.00=R800.00
Fuel for boat 400ltrs: 400xR7.00/ltr=R2800.00
That equates to R3760,00 plus food and odd's and ends, lets call it R4000.00. So, with-out making a single cent profit, with-out paying the instalment on the boat, with-out mooring fee's, club fees, insurance, maintanance, etc,etc, a charter vessel has at LEAST got R4000.00 in expenses!! And thats on a normal trip, days when fish are scarce and you must make a huge effort to find fish, your fuel bill can sky-rocket!!
The charter guys really don't make alot of money and most of them prefer targetting foreign clients, as they're able to charge more. Usually, the charter will cost anything from R5500.00 to R12000.00+ for 4-6 people. Some charter guys are cheaper, but they tend to not know much interms of finding fish. I've seen these charter boats run out, only 10-15nm offshore and simply dump their spearo's in the water. Needless to say, these guys spend the entire day in the water and 99% of the time, don't even see a single fish!! Rather save up and pay a bit more and then you can go with a reputable guy. PM me if you want contact details of the better charter boats.
Keeping of fish is allowed by quite a few charter boats, but then you pay the full price!! Some boats use the fish as a way to offset their HUGE fuel bills, making it more affordable for their clients.
Your best bet for a cheaper alternative is to get a buddy who has a large boat, something like a 6m+ semi-rigid and get him to take you out. Costs will still how-ever be around R800-R1000 per spearo, if you're 4 guys. Six spearo's is simply too many guys on a small boat. Ideally, skipper plus 3 spearo's on a 6m boat.
Hope that helps!!
Regards
miles