Posted by Chris on December 05, 2000 at 12:14:12:
In Reply to: Must you hunt?? (+) posted by mattschechter on December 04, 2000 at 20:37:37:
Do you eat seafood? If you do, and buy it, you are being far more damaging to the environment that someone who spears fish.
With commercially caught seafood, there is almost always a large by catch that goes to waste. Even with rod and reel, some of the small fish you catch, and do not want, will not survive the ordeal.
Spearfishing does not suffer from the by catch of other methods.
I hunt almost every dive, yet because I only shoot what I really intend to eat, I often go many dives without shooting anything. Mostly I hunt for halibut, and yellowtail. If I get more than four fish in a year, it is exceptional.
If you eat commercially caught seafood at all, you have no right to moralize about conscientious spearfishing.