i have two friends who are local commercial spearfisherman. one of them i barely know. one i have dove with twice,(scuba). both of these guys still enjoy diving. the thing is, in the US spearing on scuba is allowed. and the commercial guys around here use scuba to dive on deep wrecks, (150 to 260ft usually) we have ALOT of wrecks in the florida keys! they use powerheads to kill large black and gag grouper ,(i have seen pics of blacks up to 80 lbs!) lots of snapper, etc. they make a decent living. nothing crazy. the guys around here do lobster and stone crab traps as well, in order to make ends meet. regulations here are tightening QUICKLY right now. we have new closure areas at the dry tortugas,(google it , if you never heard of it,one of the greatest dive spots in the US, if not the world) and new grouper closures for 4 months a year. are gonna really hurt these guys now. scuba is used almost exclusively on deeper spots. these guys dont freedive when its for money. now obviously if you are gonna target tuna or other pelagics, you need to freedive. but i am just commenting on the guys i know locally, for information purposes. and these guys target deep reef fish mostly.BTW: these guys are a WEALTH of information! and gps numbers!!,(if you can get them to give any up!)my one buddy, john, dives three deep dives a day! at 200ft then two at 160ft range! that is crazy! he is a legend around here. a young guy too,(25yrs old)he is a good freediver as well. he often wins at the local spearing tournaments. at the key west open last year, he got a 22lb mutton snapper and a 63 lb black grouper! those are freakin huge ,(if you dont know) anyway, i dont know where i am going with this. there really isnt ant point to it. i guess i am saying this: when they are diving commercially, it is scuba, and deep and they dive alone ALOT! and it really isnt much fun for them. bu when they DO want to just have a good time, they freedive on their secret spots, etc.,( BTW:that is when you tag along and bring your handheld gps!) so it doesnt ruin diving for them to do it for a job, BUT the type of diving, gear, etc. is different than sport diving. around here it is easy to kill alot of fish, if you know where to go. here are some pics of a two day overnight trip to tail end area,(45 miles from key west) four freedivers ,(three of us got most of the fish)diving ledges in the 35 to 45 ft depth ,(10 to 15 m) last june. we went on my commercial buddies sportfishingboat. he can sell fish, we worked hard for those fish, but as you can see a profit surely can be made here still! check it out.