Responsible Spearfishing
April 20, 2017 3 min read
Words by Noob Spearo's Turbo.
It’s now more important than ever for spearfishers to be seen doing the right thing. As society becomes increasingly environmentally conscious there is increased pressure from environmental groups to end many types of hunting and fishing. I believe that as spearfishing becomes more popular and mainstream it will be no different to game hunting and will fall under the spotlight of questionable and very vocal environmental groups. If we don’t take the correct measures now, it could ultimately threaten the sport we all love. I think there are few important steps spearo’s can take to ensure this doesn’t happen.
1. Responsible Social Media
Social media is a wonderful thing and we all love holding up our catches and letting the likes roll in. I too am guilty of this but something we should all ask ourselves is how does the general public perceive these photos? There is a shift in the promotion of the sport from images of slaughter to the promotion of the spearfishing lifestyle. It’s a positive move and one we can all get on board with.Far too often newcomers to the sport or traveling spearo’s post pictures of undersize catch on Facebook. There is a natural response from spearo’s to name and shame and although this is done with the best intentions and it demonstrates the high level of concern for our fishery by spearo’s, it is actually counterproductive for the image of the sport. It creates a high level of awareness to the fact that spearo’s are doing the wrong thing. In short, it’s bad publicity. I feel it’s better to write a personal message to the person and educate them if it’s an honest mistake or simply pass the details on to the authorities.