[ardhill]

Underwater hunting does appear to be popular in various parts of the world, but I was wondering what the folks here think / do.

I guess that the subject could raise a little emotional input, but if you don't want to be identified, for concern about the feedback, then just vote and don't comment.

For myself, I have never hunted anything from the sea, but I do eat fish, so I can't exactly condem those who do.

For the purpose of this poll, I term hunting as taking any living creature from the sea i.e. colecting scallops, lobsters etc. Spearfishing is of course catching fish by spearing them or similar. And I am refering to 'while you are diving' not if you go out sometimes and side on dry land / a boat etc and fish.

Thanks

 

[NotDeadYet]

I collect scallops when I'm diving anywhere they are in plentiful supply and I'm looking at buying a speargun. I've been considering seeding oysters for my own scoffing too. When I lived in the US I used to collect squid at night by torchlight and would go raking for clams at lowtide, I've collected spoots (razor clams) in Scotland too (I love them). I'm not going to try to justify it.

 

[Muddweller]

I don't have a problem with killing things if your gonna eat them after, but I'm against spearfishin just for the hell of it.


Just my 2p

Karl

 

[Mark Chase]

Love it do it and eat what I catch. Pete does it too and yesterday we ate wild boor shot Friday outside Ashford somewhere.

I eat meet and fish and I would rather that meet and fish were roaming free until the day I catch / eat them. I feel sorry for factory farmed animals and commercially caught animals. Most commercial methods are horrific and indiscriminate.

I would go so far as to say meet, fish, shellfish etc tastes better when I have caught killed and prepared it my self. Sure its probably the testosterone hunter gatherer thing but sorry it just does.

I don't get angry and Vegetarians half as much as I get angry at the people who can eat processed meet but couldn't do the deed them selves. Mind you my sister and her other half are rampant veggie types and they are a bugger to cook for

ATB

Mark CHase

 

[the goat]

Am too scared the b***ards ll bite me back

 

[DonnaA]

I got a speargun for Xmas and can't wait to have a go. So long as you eat what you catch, I don't see it as a problem.

Donna

 

[nigelH]

Spearfishing for dinner is one kill = one meal which is far superior to 'Trawl everything and throw back (dead) anything that isn't in your quota or that won't command a good price.

OK it can be done indiscriminately and the large, breeding adults are taken reducing the population's ability to reproduce but that's fixed by education not prohibition.

That said: I don't eat seafood so it doesn't effect me much but I do not accept that because some people are squeamish about fishing that others can't do it.

 

[Prometheus]

Spearfishing, only if you are free diving, it least then there is some limiting factor .

 

[nigelH]

Spearfishing, only if you are free diving, it least then there is some limiting factor .

I know the idea is common but why?
Is it an arbitary rule to just reduce the amount of fish taken?
Is it because a freediver might be less descriminating?
Is it that poor freedivers, who can't afford scuba gear, probably need the food?
Why?

 

[Eeyore]

Dont mind the odd scallop or eater :angel: but cant be bothered with chasing round the fish :thumbsdow
No problems with it tho! each to their own!! :teeth:
Good poll, interested to see the results
Aaran

 

[Hazel W]

If you are hunting in any form then kill cleanly, practice practice practice with your chosen form of hunting be it speargun or rifle then eat what you kill.

I do have real problems with people who hunt for sport then throw away what they kill

 

[Bantam]

I know the idea is common but why?
Is it an arbitary rule to just reduce the amount of fish taken?
Is it because a freediver might be less descriminating?
Is it that poor freedivers, who can't afford scuba gear, probably need the food?
Why?

It's more that it's more of a sporting chance versus a whitewash. When you're freediving you're limited by your desire for air - it's much more natural (i.e. apart from the speargun and/or long fins you are pretty much even) whereas with scuba the balance is tilted in your favour (an unfair advantage) because you can hide and stay down much longer.

It's a bit like hunting wild boar with a shotgun versus hunting with an Uzi.

(Note - I do spearfish myself but only whilst freediving - thus my answer. However I only take what I can eat, and usually not even that cause I'm such a crap shot with it ).

 

[Lou]

I have no issue with careful, discriminate, skilled and ecologically aware “hunting for the pot”. This means knowing the site you are at, what the population is of what you intend to take and understanding the effect you take will have on the population in the short and longer term. It means picking your target carefully, assessing the likelihood of a clean shot and clean kill and executing it properly. It means taking only what you will eat immediately, and it also means a sense of fair play – not taking the big old lobbie because you can, or using camouflage skinsuits and scuba to sneak up on the resident grouper.

It certainly precludes hunting purely for sport or treating the ocean as your own version of supermarket sweep. Just because it is free does not mean you have the right to eat lobster everyday, and hand-caught does not automatically mean sustainable.

There is a duty on those who do take creatures for food to ensure that death is swift and humane. If you can’t bring yourself to break the neck of a fish with your hands or club over the head, don’t catch it in the first place.

There is an issue with divers taking too much, taking too small, taking just because they can. I believe that we should have stricter enforcement of take rules as there are in other countries. Knowing that the boat may be inspected on return to port would maybe force divers to learn what the minimum take sizes and maximum quotas are – something that I do not believe many of those who take crustaceans or shellfish at the moment even consider.

Of course, personally, I take nothing. I don’t eat it and I don’t want to personally contribute to a loss of stocks.

 

[chrisch]

...
It certainly precludes hunting purely for sport or treating the ocean as your own version of supermarket sweep..

I think this is really at the heart of it. Having dived in France and Italy a lot I have to say most speargunners are not particularly responsible people. I remember in particular a very heated argument between a speargunner and a man who had politely ask the gunner to discharge the weapon before heading up a crowded beach full of kids. I learn't one or two new French words that day...

The same is true of angling. I was a keen sea angler for many years (until the fish dissapeared). I was a member of a fishing club in Felixstowe. The club held regular fishing contests and had an annual trophy etc. This is not my thing so I never took part. At one meeting I got a total slagging off about "never fishing a match" and that the space my boat took up in the compound could be given to someone more "worthy".

However, I had seen a couple of weigh-ins and the sight of dozens of small whiting being thrown dead into the sea at the end of the match sickened me. (The seagulls were happy though). I managed to keep my boat space by claiming to work weekends and fish during the week (half true - I was a student with a part time job).

As with any activity its the wankers that spoil it for the rest.

Chris

 

[Mark Chase]

Just to add a little to what Lou said...


I have never seen any one bring up a lobster as small as the ones you get in Tesco. Bringing anything up with eggs on is considered very bad form and finaly I have seen Steve on Nauticat and Dave Aplin examine lobsters and crabs and decide they are too small and throw them back wether the diver liked it or not. And no they still wernt as small as you get in Tesco.

ATB

Mark Chase

 

[Lou]

Just to add a little to what Lou said...


I have never seen any one bring up a lobster as small as the ones you get in Tesco. Bringing anything up with eggs on is considered very bad form and finaly I have seen Steve on Nauticat and Dave Aplin examine lobsters and crabs and decide they are too small and throw them back wether the diver liked it or not. And no they still wernt as small as you get in Tesco.

ATB

Mark Chase

Hi Mark

I don't doubt you, but can you tell me that many divers know the legal limits for this year (in terns of size and quantity) for all the items they might bring up? In somewhere like Australia, when I went out on a boat with lots of crawfish hunters they all knew precisely the limits and there was alot of information available and publicised for limits. The dive shops had leaflets explaining what you could and couldn't take, the size, numbers, seasons etc.

I can't see how a similar approach here could be a bad thing?

Lou

 

[chrisch]

Hi Mark

I don't doubt you, but can you tell me that many divers know the legal limits for this year (in terns of size and quantity)

As best I know Lou there is no legal limit for terns. Kittiwakes should be at least 16cm long from beak to tail and the TAC is 200 tonnes.

Chris

 

[Hazel W]

I have never seen any one bring up a lobster as small as the ones you get in Tesco. Bringing anything up with eggs on is considered very bad form and finaly I have seen Steve on Nauticat and Dave Aplin examine lobsters and crabs and decide they are too small and throw them back wether the diver liked it or not. Mark Chase

Absolutly agree with this ... I know its draconian but if divers bring up a bag of scallops or a lobbie then i will go through their catch with them ...and throw back anything undersize, berried (or indeed oversized) we have a system up here that lobsters that are caught in berry have their tails notched and are put back ..this means that succesfull breeding stock can easily be identified and preserved.

As an aside one of the groups last year brought up a lobster that was so big that he couldnt lift his claws while out of the water ...he was almost 2 feet long in the body ...needless to say all that was taken from him was pics...he got his tail notched and back he went to terrorize future divers


Hazel

 

[Lou]

Absolutly agree with this ... I know its draconian but if divers bring up a bag of scallops or a lobbie then i will go through their catch with them ...and throw back anything undersize, berried (or indeed oversized) we have a system up here that lobsters that are caught in berry have their tails notched and are put back ..this means that succesfull breeding stock can easily be identified and preserved.

As an aside one of the groups last year brought up a lobster that was so big that he couldnt lift his claws while out of the water ...he was almost 2 feet long in the body ...needless to say all that was taken from him was pics...he got his tail notched and back he went to terrorize future divers


Hazel

I don't think it is draconian at all! Good on you.

 

[Bantam]

Absolutly agree with this ... I know its draconian but if divers bring up a bag of scallops or a lobbie then i will go through their catch with them ...and throw back anything undersize, berried (or indeed oversized) we have a system up here that lobsters that are caught in berry have their tails notched and are put back ..this means that succesfull breeding stock can easily be identified and preserved.

As an aside one of the groups last year brought up a lobster that was so big that he couldnt lift his claws while out of the water ...he was almost 2 feet long in the body ...needless to say all that was taken from him was pics...he got his tail notched and back he went to terrorize future divers


Hazel

Same with the guys at Lochaline - when we did a scallop collection for tea, the skipper (Dave, I think - we were on the Brendan) went through them to make sure we didn't get anything undersized for us.

I, for one, don't know what size is too big or too small - I have to rely on a second, more knowledgeable, opinion, and for that I'm thankful to those skippers who help out.