spearfishing NO MORE!

[cubandiver]

Iam hearing things from my friends that spearfishing may be band from florida waters in a year or two. There allready pasing a law that spearfishing in the lower and upper keys shall be band forever because the lack of grouper in reefs. There saying that this will be for a short time for the grouper to reform but like the nassau and jew laws were also said to be for a short time I dont belive them. The goverment is pushing us to far on what we could catch and what we can't. The goverment is turning comunist and blocking all we do. ex: theres ramps here in florida to cannels for boats and jet sky's that are public and now i see fences on most of them. Why do we let them push us so far for what we do when we pay for ther work!:naughty

 

[btweikel]

cubandiver:

One of the factors that persuades those responsible for managing our game fish to take the easy way out and simply outlaw spearfishing is the abundance of individuals like yourself that don't respect the existing rules.

I will no longer be able to spear obviously abundant fish because it will require too much work on the part of the game wardens to figure out if I am going to spear a protected fish.

Do you have any idea what a casual swim through the reef 500 years ago would have looked like? How about 50 years ago? If you talked to one of the guys that was spearing in the early 60s I bet they could describe what abundant grouper look like, and I bet it wouldn't even be close to what you see now.

Maybe you think those 500lb fish have had there time, and are now just eatting too many fish themselves. If so you are missing their main contribution: their offspring. These large fish lay tens of thousands of eggs, which when they hatch, form an integral part of the food chain in the sea. Without all these tiny fish and larva, much of the plankton and algae floats on by, instead of being transformed into the flesh of small fish which in turn become the flesh of larger fish, and so on, and so on. The food chain is broken, and all life in the sea suffers.

If you think you know so much about what should and shouldn't be fished then, by all means spread the word. But don't udermine the only mechanisim we have for ensuring that those fish will always be there for our children and our grandchildren.

 

[rigdvr]

fisheries management is absolutely necessary but prohibitting spearing is rediculous. The reason they can do this is because we are not organized in mass like the rec. and commercial anglers. Fishing contributes over 5 billion in taxes annually so there is power there. Spearfisherman tend to be the most conservation minded. And besides, whats the difference if I spear it or catch it...the result is still the same except spearing leaves no bycatch!!!:duh

 

[btweikel]

Yes, I agree with that. My response to cubandiver was actually for his post in "biggest grouper on your spear".

 

[narked]

Agreed. I originally read this thread before the "biggest grouper" one, and initially wondered why you were having a go at him. But having read that thread, I don't even know why he's even bothering to bitch about these new laws, as it's obvious he'll ignore them anyway if he decides that the government is wrong.
If it wasn't for the minority of selfish spearfishers, maybe the rest of the fishing community would be more friendly towards us, which would in turn get the sport further as we would be likely to have the support of anglers and so on. But while there are some out there ignoring rules regarding protected species, we won't get anywhere.

End of rant.

 

[mishu1984]

one thing that i must oint out is that you cant have a certain thing without its opposite. example: there would be no good without evil. try giving a definition of day without saying the opposite of night or try defining good without using or paraphrasing good. its impossible. So therefore there will be no non-idiotic spearfishermen without the idiotic spearfishermen. the solution is to make the idiotic spearfishermen les idiotic

weird huh

 

[rigdvr]

Sorry BT I now understand where you were coming from. You see I write from the standpoint that
I am a charter boat captain and as such belong to the charter boat association. When we want our opinion heard we have the organization make sure our politicians are listening. This is the way of government.:head what many anglers fail to realize is that as spearfisherman we are fisherman! All the same rules and more apply to us. I have no special jedi powers underwater!!!!

 

[SAFishShooter]

Hi

Totally agree with everything. Rules and regs are there for a reason.
Here in South-Africa we have closed crayfish season form end of April to end of Nov. This weekend I've gone spearfishing and saw why. All the female crayfish is sitting out in the open with their eggs. It is ridiculously easy to take them out if you wanted to.

The same applies to abelone. Here in SA I've heard that the abelone season isn't going to open next year and possibly for 4 to 7 years as well.

There are a lot of poachers around especially around Hermanus and area. This moring the headline of one of the news papers was "Gun shots fired in wild ablone chase on N2" The person who was arrested had 5000 perlemoen in the car. This had a street value of 6 Million rand or about 600 000 US $.

This is a classic example of people who is screwing up the fun and enjoyment of the average oke.
This is completly wrong. And the main problem is this oke didn't do the diving he was just the courrier. Even if they catch the divers it still won't work because the syndycates that run the whole thing can get divers with a snap of their fingers. 350 Rand per kilo (35 US $). This is more that what some people in this country earn in a week.
They take the okes that are poor ,Hungry and doesn't give a damn about conservation kitted up and in the water.

The police and marine services do their best but as soon as they are on one spot they dive on another spot. Even if the Inspectors are on the beach and waiting these okes just drop their bags.

It has gotten to the point that there are very little abelone outside of the recerves and even these are being targeted by the poachers now with scuba bottles and torches to go night diving.

What to do ? I don't. Get more police ? With what money.
Make an example of those caught ? They've got the best lawyer and delay the cases with DNA testing to make sure that it isn't siffies( This is a animal like the perlemoen but smaller and can be legaly caught). In the mean time there is hundreds of other divers in the water stealing and raping the seas.
And it Sucks

Cheers SAFishShooter

 

[LaJollaFreedvr]

SAFishShooter, sadly its similar here...in san diego ive seen 3 abalone in my 5 total years of scuba/snorkel/freedive...as a matter of fact i saw one the other night, but that was a rare exception. the abalone have been long gone and now people are abusing the lobster...our season starts in early october and goes to late march, but so many people here ignore the rules and take undersize, out of season, or female lobster (with eggs) that it sickens me. i see evidence of it all the time. some of them are even professional poachers that sell them to seafood restaurants. at least about a year ago one of them got caught, but unfortunately at one of my favorite dive spots. his computer logged an hour and 20 min underwater (he was on scuba, which is legal here but shouldnt be for taking lobster or spearing) and he had taken upwards of 90 lobsters with a HAWAIIAN SLING...i think hes in jail for 6 years now but that is the rare exception. there simply arent enough fish and game officers to check everyone. people need to learn that the ocean is there for RESPONSIBLE use, not the slaying of helpless animals off-season:waterwork

 

[corey]

Here in oz, sydney, a blue grouper on the end of a spear will set u back $20 000. These fish, and all groupers are protected from spears for good reason. They are sitting ducks that taste fantastic. I dont understand why other countries cant adopt the same method. these fish were almost all gone until these restrictions were put in place. Trouble is that too many idiots used to go out & hack at aything in line with their gun. Too many still do! I say up the fines, and the fish will come back! Worked well here.

 

[corey]

Hey LJ DIVER...

Ive dove all over LJ. and san diego. not bad at all cosidering the population density!

 

[Murat]

In medeterenian Black Grouper is primary hunting fish no matter you are in Cyprus, Greek, Italy, Spain or wherever. I dunno about other countries but here i always see some a*s holes goin shoot 10-15 cm grouper.:vangry :vangry. Few times i tried to talk them to uderstand why they are shooting that little fish and don't let them to grow. You can guess answer "If i shoot 7-8 more like that i will have grouper dish for tonight" :rcard :rcard

I see no hope for our seas coz of mans minded like this.

 

[ivan]

hi

Guys take it easy Cubandiver hasnt done anything wrong in this thread so let it be

cheers

 

[j.grady]

Florida should ban spearguns, not spearing. Limit them to non-triggered devices like in the Bahamas.

 

[poacher]

You guys in florida need to get together and organise yourselves and talk to fisheries about options ie. bag limits on certain species baning of certain species etc for spearing and work out a deal so they dont have to ban spearing or even guns altogether they may be willing to try a couple of years of spearing with no groupers or other easy to get fish and reduced limets for spearos etc rather than a ban
Regards Peter

 

[corey]

tell them to contact nsw fisheries, they do ok.

 

[lionel]

Cubandiver,

Where did this information come from? I find the idea of no spearfishing in Fla horrible, but I couldn't find any articles on the net about any comprehensive ban on spearfishing in Fla.

-- Lionel

 

[fuzz]

lionel, this post by cuban diver was made 11 months ago. I don't believe he participates on this board anymore.

 

[lionel]

Fuzz,

Thanks. I'm a bit slow on the take at times, but I eventually catch on. I saw some recent activity on the board, so I thought I'd reply.

In any event, if anyone has any concrete information about any possible ban on spearfishing in Florida, please let me know or post on this thread.

-- LL

 

[neshamah]

hola

Hola lionel are you cuban ....yo soy cubano tambien de que parte? tenia una amigo que se llamaba como tu en matanzas

saludos

Daniel.