This goes right up there with D4B's scuba question post

[fishkilla]

(email address was removed to protect the ingnorant)

>From: "Alessa(removed)" <amministrazione@(removed)>
>Reply-To: "Alessa(removed)" <amministrazione@(removed)>
>To: <fishkillaproductions@hotmail.com>
>Subject: SpearFishing with Air
>Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2004 14:24:48 +0200

Hi, my name is Alex and i write from Italy. Your videos of spearfishing with airbreathers. Is that Sport??? That's an act, due to a law too permissive, and made ( i think) by people who doesn't love sea.
Apnea si the only way to make it. Other form of spearfihing are homicides. Fish has a great advantage and the ability to catch him makes a great satisfaction to me and I think in all the people who do that.
I would also remember that videos are used in other countries to make outlaw spearfishing......maybe you don't know that but it's true.

Bye.

(breathe deep.... breathe.... i'm doin the happy dance... i'm doin the happy dance... okay i'm an ambasador of our sport... eeeek)

alessandro,

thanks for your letter and i appreciate the laws that you have in italy. here in the gulf of mexico we literally have hundreds of thousands of square miles of shallow water that a harbor a vast and amazing fishery. i understand that in many other countries their shallow water fishery is very limited due to limited shoreline. if you in fact did allow scuba spearfishing over there what few fish you have would quickly be taken. please don't think that i don't love my waters. i make my living from them and if i destroy my Gulf then i not only destroy my job but the one sport that i love. if you ever get a chance to come over to florida i would love to take you out into the Gulf for a freediving and scuba diving adventure.

thanks for your concern,

capt. ben



(here's what i wanted to right)

yes scuba and spearfishing is not fair and i will not stop doing it until i rid the enitire worlds oceans of these filthy discusting things called fish!

[keezdiver]

that's too funny

[Denny]

Ben- Is that offer for a one way trip?
Another ignorant bungholio (Alessa) heard from.
To answer Alessa's question..Yes, it IS sport. And it is regulated so that we don't depleat our resource. Your statement that the laws that allow spearing are made by those who "do not love the sea" truly shows your lack of understanding about our ecosystem and the sport in general. Homicide, you say? So sneaking up on a fish is OK, but making noise, giving the fish a chance to take flight or hide is NOT? Sounds like your idea of sport is a little convoluted.
In America, we have the fundamental right to the pursuit of happiness.
Feel free to send my thoughts to Alessa

[Wayward Son]

This year was the 1st time I ever spearfished with scuba gear. I used to hunt when snorkeling, but that was a matter of praticality, not opposition to using a tank. The places I hunted in Turkey were shallow and tanks really were not needed.

Now, going out of Panama City, I'm hunting flounder on the bottom at 70 feet. I'm hunting other fish on wrecks and structures at various depths. Scuba gear makes sense.

Bag limit is the same. I can kill only up to my daily bag, no matter if I take the fish by free diving, scuba diving, or using a hook and line.

In practise, given that with tanks I actually get less time in the water per trip, who will typically kill more fish on a trip? A scuba diver who burns 2 tanks of air and gets may an hour or so of bottom time, or a free diver who spends 6 hours?

My last trip on saturday I used scuba to hunt a bridge span. In 2 dives, I killed zero fish.

Yep, totally unethical, I'm just causing the extinction of species here, ain't I?

I see this argument to be very much like that between various elitst hunter on land. Traditional bowhunters see compound bows as un-sporting, crossbows the work of satan hissownself. Rifles just aren't sporting, and on it goes.

I personally hunt on land with a recurve bow, handguns, muzzle loaders, and centerfire rifles. In the water, I hunt with spearguns and pole spears, both with scuba and without, as I think approriate for the conditions.

And I do value the freedom that we have here to make such choices. I hunt for myself and my purposes, not becuase it will make someone else either happy or unhappy.

[diligaf]

Where do John Kerry and his European allies stand on the issue??? We need a summit with the French to determine what is best for the American spearfisherman!!! God save our fish, uh oh oops, I can’t say God…. uh I mean the French save our fish, uh, I think, uh???

[Denny]

The whole euro-thing has me confused. I believe that we are the evolution from the euro-way. Taking France's lead, maybe we should just surrender to somebody.

[Speargun]

Where do John Kerry and his European allies stand on the issue???

He has a plan! And it will pass the global test.

[WreckDiver]

Whats the test, 14 - 25 UN resolutions and then several summits. then start over?

[diligaf]

This is the wrong fish, wrong spear, wrong country!!! Our European friends will guild us on how to spear our fish and demonstrate that in the fish-for-oil program!!! The Kerry/French summit will solve all of the world’s spearfishing differences!

[Chad Carney]

Originally posted by fishkilla
(email address was removed to protect the ingnorant)

>Subject: SpearFishing with Air
>Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2004 14:24:48 +0200

Hi, my name is Alex and i write from Italy. Your videos of spearfishing with airbreathers. Is that Sport??? That's an act, due to a law too permissive, and made ( i think) by people who doesn't love sea.
Apnea si the only way to make it. Other form of spearfihing are homicides. Fish has a great advantage and the ability to catch him makes a great satisfaction to me and I think in all the people who do that.
I would also remember that videos are used in other countries to make outlaw spearfishing......maybe you don't know that but it's true.

Spearfishing Magazine gets these kind of comments all the time, and I get to answer them quite frequently.

These freedivers think that their way of hunting is clearly above reproach.

I have used the viewpoint of a Bahamian, where only non-triggered spears are allowed, to knock the arrogance out of many of these high-powered gunslingers arguments. Some of them have actually agreed, that they should not preach their views on us and that we have every right to our methods, after seeing themselves in a less-than-holy position from another countries point of view. Interestingly, I have never had a complaint come from the Bahamas.

Chad

Here's part of the problem...the ONLY American scuba gear manufacturer to currently have spearfishing men and women, (Sheri Daye), on their website is Zeagle Systems. It's on the front page, but it rotates randomly, so you may have to click refresh several times.

http://www.zeagle.com/ (Sorry it's a bitmap so it won't display here)

Zeagle has, in the past, had a spearfisherman in their catalog and also in an ad in Spearfishing Magazine.
I haven't seen a spearo or a dead fish in an ad by another American scuba company in any media in probably 20 years.

[TheMackDaddy]

what was d4b's scuba question post? can i have a link to it?

[ScottZeagle]

Coming soon to www.zeagle.com :

Big Pig and his SPO award (and Zeagle Flathead Reg) winning fish - in living color!!!

You guys know that Zeagle supports spearfishing, as do all the manufacturers that help support this board!

We have had "boycott threats" from people from time to time, but I gently give them the old "I understand your point and we will look into it" response and send them on their way....

On a side note, we got an email from one of our dealers in Oklahoma today asking about this "new spearfishing BC" that his customer came in asking for. The ONLY place that this BC has been discussed outside of Zeagle is SPEARBOARD!!!!!

Have I told you guys lately how much Zeagle appreciates you???


Scott

[zds3488]

Damn Scott. Now I have to buy the computer and the BC. I will only buy the BC if it is called V.O.D.

[ScottZeagle]

It is called the Stiletto you moron.

However, if you can get your dad to pay the $150 mold charge, I will have a few VoD patches made up, so you can have a true VoD!

[zds3488]

Scott,
Are you serious?
-Zack