The water is warming up and not only the Scuba diving season begins, but Long Islands fishing season starts heating up too. Spearfishing can be combined with Scuba or free diving for a challenging and sometimes very rewarding experience. The additional gear can be as elaborate as a $500 6' banded spear gun to a $30 Hawaiian sling. Spear fishing is a way to bond with mans primal past that required the use of hunter skills as a means of survival. A sustainable and ecologically responsible method of catching fish virtually eliminating by-catch.

Seminars to learn about this exciting form of fishing will start soon. For more general info on the sport, their Facebook page is Long Island Spearfishing

Keep us posted! I'd love to participate. No by-catch, long-lines, or trawling. If you're going to eat seafood, this seems like the very best way to do it. Find it, identify it, kill it, cook it and eat it! Sign me up for a Hawaiian sling.
avra

Sounds great, but did you ever see 3 beautiful Triggers on a spear, Not my cup a tea baby.

I spear for food Bryan. Born and raised on Long Island, the bays and Ocean are a food source for me.
I eat fish so the harvesting is a part of that responsibility. It was also literally impossible to find out where fish for sale in the market came from. I know where it comes from when I get it myself. There is also no by-catch and no weights or hooks left behind. I take only what I eat.
Think about this... Every comercially caught fish you eat has a by-catch cost. A can of tuna may have cost a Shark, or Swordfish, or a Marlin. Nets have no concious and no selective powers. I couldn't support that kind of harvesting.

The only ornamentals I want to see on a spear are Lion Fish.

See you on the bottom
Les

After reading your thread about the thre trigger fish on a spear, I started looking into it.
If they were grey trigger fish they are a gamefish. The NYSDEC actually classifies them in the fishing regs. I have never seen them caught or speared up here, but they are edible. Supposedly quite tasty.


See you on the bottom
Les

"Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!"

from The Ballad Of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde

I'm just sayin'. If you're a vegan, I admire that enormously and would not expect you to enjoy spear fishing without significant ethical conflict. I myself have been assiduously trying to maintain a mostly plant based diet, with frequent dipping into the lower part of the ocean food chain: crustaceans and bivalves, squid, and some fish, plate size on down.

Since I'm already eating these fish (which I think is preferable to supporting the canned tuna industry and other non-sustainable fisheries) I can imagine no more ethically consistent practice than catching them myself. Trigger fish are an abundant reef fish in the Caribbean where they are served up as "Ole Wife" poached and smothered in onions and fish broth, or deep fried with a tangy sauce creole.

Sure they are beautiful, but so are many animals we consume. I never thought that was a fair standard for what was ethically acceptable to eat. My interest in underwater hunting is based in part on honing a skill set that involves stalking, navigation and significant maneuvering skills as well as a good knowledge base of fish identification and behavior. At least I so imagine.

If and when I get the opportunity to try it, I may find I feel much as you do: "not my cup of tea".
But I'd like to give it a go. I expect my main challenge will be not shooting myself in the fin!

Cheers... avra