Spearfishing is an ancient method of fishing that has been used throughout the world for millennia. Early civilizations were familiar with the custom of spearing fish from rivers and streams using sharpened sticks.
Spearfishing today employs modern and more effective elastic or pneumatic powered spearguns and slings to strike the hunted fish.
Spearfishing may be done using free-diving, snorkeling, or scuba diving techniques. Because of a view that there is a lack of sportsmanship in some modern spearfishing techniques, the use of mechanically powered spearguns is outlawed in some jurisdictions.
Spearfishing is highly selective, with a low amount of unintended by-catch. With education and proper regulations, spearfishing can be an ecologically sustainable form of fishing.
The best free-diving spear fishers can hold their breath for 2 to 4 minutes, and dive to depths of 40 or even 60 meters (130 to 200 feet). However, dives of about one minute and 15 or 20 meters (50 to 70 feet) are more typical for the average spear fisher.
History
Spearfishing with barbed poles (harpoons) was widespread in palaeolithic times. Cosquer cave in Southern France contains cave art over 16,000 years old, including drawings of seals which appear to have been harpooned.
There are references to fishing with spears in ancient literature; though, in most cases, the descriptions do not go into detail. An early example from the Bible in Job 41:7: Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears? .
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.
Oppian of Corycus, a Greek author wrote a major treatise on sea fishing, the Halieulica or Halieutika , composed between 177 and 180. This is the earliest such work to have survived intact to the modern day. Oppian describes various means of fishing including the use of spears and tridents.
In a parody of fishing, a type of gladiator called retiarius was armed with a trident and a casting-net. He would fight against the murmillo, who carried a short sword and a helmet with the image of a fish on the front.
Copper harpoons were known to the seafaring Harappans well into antiquity. Early hunters in India include the Mincopie people, aboriginal inhabitants of India's Andaman and Nicobar islands, who have used harpoons with long cords for fishing since early times.
Traditional spear fishing
Spear fishing is an ancient method of fishing and may be conducted with an ordinary spear or a specialised variant such as an eel spear or the trident. A small trident type spear with a long handle is used in the American South and Midwest for gigging bullfrogs with a bright light at night, or for gigging carp and other fish in the shallows.
Traditional spear fishing is restricted to shallow waters, but the development of the speargun has made the method much more efficient. With practice, divers are able to hold their breath for up to four minutes and sometimes longer; of course, a diver with underwater breathing equipment can dive for much longer periods.
Modern spear fishing
In the 1920s, sport spearfishing without breathing apparatus became popular on the Mediterranean coast of France and Italy. At first, divers used no more aid than ordinary watertight swimming goggles, but it led to development of the modern diving mask, swimfin and snorkel. Modern scuba diving had its genesis in the systematic use of rebreathers for diving by Italian sport spearfishers during the 1930s. This practice came to the attention of the Italian Navy, which developed its frogman unit, which affected World War II.
During the 1960s, attempts were made to have spearfishing recognized as an Olympic sport. This didn't happen. Instead, two organisations, the International Underwater Spearfishing Association (IUSA) and the International Bluewater Spearfishing Records Committee (IBSRC), maintain lists of world records by species and offer rules to ensure that any world record setting fish is caught under fair conditions. Spearfishing is illegal in many bodies of water, and some locations only allow spearfishing during certain seasons.
In 2007, the Australian Bluewater Freediving Classic became the first spearfishing tournament in the world to be accredited and was awarded 4 out of 5 stars based on environmental, social, safety and economic indicators.
Purposes of spearfishing
People spearfish for sport, for commerce or as subsistence. In tropical seas, some natives spearfish in snorkeling kit for a living, often using home-made kit.
Spearfishing and conservation
Spearfishing has been implicated in local extirpation of many larger species, including the Goliath grouper on the Caribbean island of Bonaire, the Nassau grouper in the barrier reef off the coast of Belize, the giant black sea bass in California, and others.
Types of spearfishing
The methods and locations freedive spearfishers use vary greatly around the world. This variation extends to the species of fish sought and the gear used.
Shore diving
Shore diving is perhaps the most common form of spearfishing and simply involves entering and exiting the sea from beaches or headlands and hunting around ocean architecture, usually reef, but also rocks, kelp or sand. Usually shore divers hunt between 5 and 25 meters (about 17 to 83 feet) depth, though it depends on location. In some locations in the South Pacific, divers can experience huge drop-offs from 5 meters up to 30 or 40 meters very close to the shore line. Sharks and reef fish can be abundant in these locations. In more subtropical areas, sharks may be less common, but other challenges face the shore diver, such as entering and exiting the water in the presence of big waves. Headlands are favored for entry because of their proximity to deeper water, but timing entries and exits is important so the diver does not get pushed onto rocks by waves. Beach entry can be safer, but more difficult due the need to consistently dive through the waves until the surf line is crossed.
Shore dives can produce a mixed bag of fish, mainly reef fish, but ocean going pelagic fish fish are caught from shore dives too, and can be specifically targeted.
Shore diving can be done with trigger-less spears such as pole spears or Hawaiian slings, but more commonly triggered devices such as spearguns. Speargun setups to catch and store fish include speed rigs, fish stringers.
The use of catch bags worn close to the body is discouraged because the bag can inhibit movement, especially descent or ascent on deeper freedives. Moreover, in waters known to contain sharks, it is positively dangerous and can greatly increase the risk of attack. The better option is to tow a float behind, to which is attached a line onto which a catch can be threaded. Tying the float line to the speargun can be of great assistance in the event of a large catch, or if the speargun should be dropped or knocked out of reach.
Boat diving
Boats, ships or even kayaks can be used to access off shore reefs or ocean structure such as pinnacles. Man made structures such as oil rigs and FADs (Fish Aggregating Devices) are also fished. Sometimes a boat is necessary to access a location that is close to shore, but inaccessible by land.
Methods and gear used for diving from a boat diving are similar to shore diving or blue water hunting depending on the prey sought. Care must be taken with spearguns in the cramped confines of a small boat, and it is recommended that spear guns are never ever loaded on the boat.
Boat diving is practiced worldwide. Hot spots include the northern islands of New Zealand (yellow tail kingfish), Gulf of Florida oil rigs (cobia, grouper) and the Great Barrier Reef (wahoo, dog-tooth tuna). FADS are targeted worldwide, often specifically for mahi-mahi (dolphin fish). The deepwater fishing grounds off Cape Point, (Cape Town, South Africa) have become popular with trophy hunting, freediving spearfishers in search of Yellowfin Tuna. The record bluefin tuna, free diving, is held by Christian Bommer.
Blue water hunting
Blue water hunting is the area of most interest to elite spearfishers, but has increased in popularity generally in recent years. It involves accessing usually very deep and clear water and trolling, chumming for large pelagic fish species such as marlin, tuna, or giant trevally. Blue water hunting is often conducted in drifts; the boat driver will drop one or more divers and allow them to drift in the current for up to several kilometers before collecting them. Blue water hunters can go for hours without seeing any fish, and without any ocean structure or a visible bottom the divers can experience sensory deprivation. It can be difficult to determine the true
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