Spearfishing ban
Spearfishing ban
It’s not ‘idiocy’
I would like to respond to the letter by Greg Miller in the WHT June 18 paper, in which he says banning spearfishing on scuba is “idiocy.” I’m afraid Mr. Miller has a lot of his facts wrong.
First, he contends scuba spearfishers don’t hunt on the reef, but instead hunt out in deep water. I have personally witnessed spearfishers on scuba taking menpachi and parrotfish, right on the same reef I was diving on. And I know a lot of freediving spearfishers who would ridicule anyone diving bluewater on scuba to hunt for ulua.
Mr. Miller contends they are only catching food for themselves or friends and there are no fishers doing this commercially. This is flat wrong.
A brief check with the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources shows there is reported commercial catch of speared fish, likely done mostly at night when the big parrotfish and other reef fishes are asleep or very lethargic.
Over the last five years, there have been more than 36 different commercial spearfishermen here in West Hawaii alone, with many of them likely using scuba. What’s to prevent that number from continually increasing?
There have also been reports by people who work for the airlines that large numbers of coolers filled with speared reef fish were being shipped to markets in Honolulu. It is entirely possible many of those fish were caught and never reported as commercial catch, in which case, it is illegal.
But the major problem is this: Mr. Miller says it’s not about aquarium fish but about fishing for food. That’s true. It is nice to get free food. However, there are many, many Pacific island nations whose people still depend virtually 100 percent on feeding their families and villages from the sea, and yet those people have decided to ban scuba spearfishing.
If anyone has the right to claim they need the food, it’s the people of these nations. Yet, they realized that to protect their long-term survival this too-convenient method of catching fish was not in their best interests — and decided to ban it.
The point is, ironically, the one thing Mr. Miller did get right: The fish scuba spearfishers are “chasing around” normally would have the option to go deeper to avoid the spear. This is called a natural refuge. Yet when scuba is involved, there is no refuge.
So, if you can’t reach the fish by freediving, then let them be. If you can’t reach the fish at night, then let them be. That’s what virtually all the other islands throughout the Pacific and much of the rest of the world have already decided.
Now it’s time for West Hawaii, at least, to come into the fold. Please support a ban on spear-fishing on scuba.
Tina Owens
Kailua-Kona