In Reply to: SCUBA Huntin'? posted by Divebum Don on May 22, 2008 at 21:58:55:

I would like to add, This topic may have more to do with diver saturation than spearfishing. Seems like a typical dive to the front side of Cat will have some sites with very few fish, these same sites are the ones that are dived by perhaps hundreds of divers per month during the summer season. And if you have been on a boat lately, you will notice very few hunters booking trips to the front side of Cat. My recent experience on a trip to Santa Cruz, probably a far less dived site than Cat, I was carrying a 4' gun, and I would turn around and see 3 to 5 lb Calicos and Sheephead following me. Yeah, following, not fleeing. I chose not to take any of these fish because I had a specific target of Halibut. We had a boat load of hunters and we took 2 Calico and 2 Sheephead for the day. I too have seen the empty reefs out there, but before putting the blame on the hunters, lets look at all the reasons for the empty reefs. Commercial fishing being number one, and live fish traps being the other, How about the explosion of Sea Lions. MMPA gone way too far. Yeah, those cute Sea Dogs eat mostly reef fish. Just dont bash the hunters and then go buy some commercially caught seafood. I try to catch all my seafood, and I think that is better for the ocean in the long run. And I have witnessed schools of fish fleeing from a mob of strobe firing divers just as well. Is it possible that the fish learn to flee from a camera just as well as a gun, I do not know. I aggree that the less fish killed would equal greater schools out there for us divers to enjoy, that is why I choose to take very few of the kelp bed fish, and focus on the migratory species, Halibut being number one, but in a good year, I will take perhaps 5 legal fish. People are going to eat seafood, always have, how it is taken from the ocean is the key