I took a trip last month to the island of Mauritius and Reunion.
It is Illegal to carry a speargun to Mauritius so much for my spearfishing adventure, but as I landed in reunion first and was made aware of it by the local spearos, I did not declare my spearguns upon entering Mauritius.
Reunion Island is full of fish but also packed with sharks of all denominations ranging from the pellagic ones to the agressive Bullshark, the day before I went out, there was a huge commotion on the beach and I was told that an experienced spearo had been attacked and killed by sharks. Quick change of plan and took off on another beach not far from our original one. The sharks were omnipresent and circled continuously, approaching dangerously whenever one took his eyes off them. In all we must have encountered at least 50-60 sharks all in hunting and curious demeanour.
I speared a 5 kgs grouper who was immediately decimated by white tips and the reef blues. It was a sobering sight.After that we did not spear any fish..the water is cool and the current persistent, no reefs per se but lots of volcanic rock deposits on the seabed.
Mauritius by comparison does not have as many fish and also not many sharks the ones I encountered were juvenile and timid. I did get a Jack barracuda some snapper and a few other, and 1 lobster..which we ate promptly....but that was all as the weather turned on me and spent the rest of the week kite sailing.
The reefs in mauritius are beautiful considerably smaller that the ones in the caribean and Mexico. The local fisherman are very helpful and knowledgeable of the fish habitat.
Had some local moonshine on one of the fishing boats which picked me up, I was shivering as the wind had picked up and the weather was cool. I had an instant headache..did it help me get warmer, I cant say as I was frantically looking for some analgesic.
I still prefer Cuba and I am back in january despite it being winter. I have not encountered as many sharks there as I have in the Indian Ocean.
It is Illegal to carry a speargun to Mauritius so much for my spearfishing adventure, but as I landed in reunion first and was made aware of it by the local spearos, I did not declare my spearguns upon entering Mauritius.
Reunion Island is full of fish but also packed with sharks of all denominations ranging from the pellagic ones to the agressive Bullshark, the day before I went out, there was a huge commotion on the beach and I was told that an experienced spearo had been attacked and killed by sharks. Quick change of plan and took off on another beach not far from our original one. The sharks were omnipresent and circled continuously, approaching dangerously whenever one took his eyes off them. In all we must have encountered at least 50-60 sharks all in hunting and curious demeanour.
I speared a 5 kgs grouper who was immediately decimated by white tips and the reef blues. It was a sobering sight.After that we did not spear any fish..the water is cool and the current persistent, no reefs per se but lots of volcanic rock deposits on the seabed.
Mauritius by comparison does not have as many fish and also not many sharks the ones I encountered were juvenile and timid. I did get a Jack barracuda some snapper and a few other, and 1 lobster..which we ate promptly....but that was all as the weather turned on me and spent the rest of the week kite sailing.
The reefs in mauritius are beautiful considerably smaller that the ones in the caribean and Mexico. The local fisherman are very helpful and knowledgeable of the fish habitat.
Had some local moonshine on one of the fishing boats which picked me up, I was shivering as the wind had picked up and the weather was cool. I had an instant headache..did it help me get warmer, I cant say as I was frantically looking for some analgesic.
I still prefer Cuba and I am back in january despite it being winter. I have not encountered as many sharks there as I have in the Indian Ocean.
