Spearfishing
Spearfishing uses no bait and is highly selective, with no by-catch, but inflicts lethal injury to the fish and thus precludes catch and release.
The Greek historian Polybius (ca 203 BC–120 BC), in his Histories, describes hunting for swordfish by using a harpoon with a barbed and detachable head.
[2] Greek author Oppian of Corycus wrote a major treatise on sea fishing, the Halieulica or Halieutika, composed between 177 and 180.
The world's first English- and French-language modern spearfishing books, Guy Gilpatric's The Compleat Goggler and Raymond Pulvénis's La Chasse aux Poissons, appeared in 1938 and 1940 respectively.
[11] In the aftermath of World War II, as the supply of the necessary raw materials improved and peacetime encouraged the development of public leisure pursuits and international tourism, the pioneers of modern spearfishing began serial production of underwater hunting equipment.
Featured at length in Gilpatric's The Compleat Goggler, expatriate Russian Alec Kramarenko and American Charles Wilen founded their United Service Agency in the southern French city of Nice to manufacture a wide range of spearfishing gear, including diving masks with built-in snorkels enabling swimmers to breathe face down on the surface of the water for long periods while stalking their prey unencumbered by the constant oral presence of a mouthpiece.
This practice is now heavily frowned upon in prominent spearfishing nations for promoting unsustainable methods and encouraging taking more fish than is needed.
In countries such as Australia and South Africa where the activity is regulated by state fisheries, spearfishing has been found to be the most environmentally friendly form of fishing due to being highly selective, having no by-catch, causing no habitat damage, nor creating pollution or harm to protected endangered species.
[14] In 2007, the Australian Bluewater Freediving Classic became the first spearfishing tournament to be accredited and was awarded 4 out of 5 stars based on environmental, social, safety and economic indicators.
[15] Shore diving is perhaps the most common form of spearfishing [16][17] and simply involves entering and exiting the sea from beaches or headlands and hunting around ocean structures,[18] usually reef, but also rocks, kelp or sand.
In subtropical areas, sharks may be less common, but other challenges face the shore diver, such as managing entry and exit in the presence of big waves.
Headlands are favoured for entry because of their proximity to deeper water, but timing is important so the diver does not get pushed onto rocks by waves.
Beach entry can be safer, but more difficult due to the need to repeatedly dive through the waves until the surf line is crossed.
Divers may enter from a relatively exposed headland, for convenience, then swim to a more protected part of the shore for their exit from the water.
Hot spots include Mozambique, the Three Kings islands of New Zealand (yellowtail), Gulf of Mexico oil rigs (cobia, grouper) and the Great Barrier Reef (wahoo, dogtooth tuna).
It involves accessing usually very deep and clear water and chumming for large pelagic fish species such as marlin, tuna, wahoo, or giant trevally.
[citation needed] The Blue Water World Cup in La Ventana, BCS, Mexico has also brought a large amount of notoriety to the sport.
Notably, some blue water hunters use large multi-band wooden guns and make use of breakaway rigs to catch and subdue their prey.
Many US states allow spearfishing in lakes and rivers, but most of them restrict divers to shooting only rough fish such as carp, gar, bullheads, suckers, etc.
Freshwater hunters typically have to deal with widely varying seasonal changes in water clarity due to flooding, algae blooms and lake turnover.
[citation needed] In the summer the majority of freshwater spearfishers use snorkelling gear rather than scuba since many of the fish they pursue are in relatively shallow water.
Carp shot by freshwater spearfishers typically end up being used as fertilizer, bait for trappers, or are occasionally donated to zoos.
[citation needed] Spearfishing with a hand-held spear from land, shallow water or boat has been undertaken for thousands of years.
The fisher must account for optical refraction at the water's surface, which makes fish appear higher in their line of sight than they are.
For many decades, women divers faced significant difficulty finding proper fitting foot pockets for freediving longfins, as the industry is vastly dominated by men.
A utility knife or side cutter (typically made of saltwater corrosion-resistant material such as stainless steel or titanium alloy) is carried as a safety precaution in case the diver becomes tangled in a spearline or floatline.
Usually a length of cable, cord, string or monofilament terminated by a loop (and sometimes a swivel) at one end and a large stainless steel pin/spike at the other.
In Florida spearfishing is restricted to several hundred yards offshore in many areas and the usage of a powerhead is prohibited within state waters.
[34] In the UK, while spearfishing is not explicitly regulated, it is instead subject to both local (typically bye-laws) and national-level legislation relating to permitted fish species and minimum size limits.
[citation needed] Competitive spearfishing is defined by the world governing body CMAS as "the hunting and capture of fish underwater without the aid of artificial breathing devices, using gear that depends entirely on the physical strength of the competitor."
