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Florida East Coast Spearfishing Let's talk here about spearing on Florida's Atlantic coast. Reports and other issues about this region belong here.

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Old 01-07-2016, 08:46 PM   #1
jfjf
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Exclamation Ban scuba spearing

http://ourfloridareefs.org/rma-comme...shing+on+SCUBA

We might want to make our opinions known. This is a group which is sponsored by the State of Florida.

I'm not sure how they can ignore beach nourishment, stormwater runoff, Ocean outfalls for sewage discharge and want to key in on scuba spearing?

Anyone else see this?
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Old 01-07-2016, 08:53 PM   #2
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Re: Ban scuba spearing

check it out....
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Old 01-08-2016, 12:04 AM   #3
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Re: Ban scuba spearing

Wow
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Old 01-08-2016, 07:04 AM   #4
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Unhappy Re: Ban scuba spearing

Next, it will be freedive spearfishing too.

These proposals will be opposed extremely strongly at the upcoming public meetings. The process by which the laundry list of proposals were developed was seriously flawed and driven by the agendas of a few misguided and uninformed individuals and environmental groups like Ocean Conservancy and Sierra Club. But, fishing rights groups stopped similar unnecessary recommendations last year in the form of the Coastal Ocean Task Force.

I have known this was coming for months and I'm working on a coordinated response with the hook and line fishing advocacy groups like CCA. We will need many divers and fishers to show up at the public meetings and voice their concerns.

Lots of fireworks to come soon.

Thanks, Tony

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Last edited by SpearMax; 01-08-2016 at 07:18 AM.
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Old 01-08-2016, 09:11 AM   #5
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Re: Ban scuba spearing

Many of the purported reasons to ban scuba hunting can be applied to freediving as well. The spearbord tournaments demonstrate that quite often freedivers do better than scuba.

Tony: is it worth our efforts to encourage the board members to invest the 2 minutes necessary to complete the survey??

If Florida does this, why not other states?
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Old 01-08-2016, 10:15 AM   #6
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Re: Ban scuba spearing

I filled it out and left comments proposing the money would be better spent combating run-off and pollution.
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Old 01-08-2016, 11:00 AM   #7
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Re: Ban scuba spearing

Quote:
Originally Posted by 100days-a-year View Post
I filled it out and left comments proposing the money would be better spent combating run-off and pollution.
This and also enforcement of existing laws.
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Old 01-08-2016, 11:25 AM   #8
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Lightbulb Re: Ban scuba spearing

Quote:
Originally Posted by jfjf View Post
Many of the purported reasons to ban scuba hunting can be applied to freediving as well. The spearbord tournaments demonstrate that quite often freedivers do better than scuba.

Tony: is it worth our efforts to encourage the board members to invest the 2 minutes necessary to complete the survey??

If Florida does this, why not other states?
Quote:
Originally Posted by 100days-a-year View Post
I filled it out and left comments proposing the money would be better spent combating run-off and pollution.
Quote:
Originally Posted by humpinit View Post
This and also enforcement of existing laws.
God points fellows.

Jim Jfjf and Tony 100 days are right we should take that survey and firmly let them know our opposition.

The fundamental problem is well-intentioned people and NGOs want to protect the ocean resources just as do fishermen and women. As Tony 100 days points out, the huge problems like runoff, water quality and mangrove habitat destruction are very very difficult to change (but still worth the effort).

The activists and environmental NGOs are left with few remaining targets and assume that fishermen and women must be to blame and must be further restricted. These individuals and groups then try to fix things that are not really broken such as FWC's good work in managing the fishery with species bag limits, size limits and seasonal closures.

At that Coast Ocean Task Force, many of these players wanted another layer of government bureaucracy added in the form of a National Marine Sanctuary from Miami to Ft. Pierce. That recommendation was defeated narrowly on a close vote of something like 8 to 6. I had my camera crew there at that meeting several months ago to thoroughly document who said what.

By the way, FWC took a position AGAINST some of the task force proposals through the signed attached official letter.

From the FWC letter below:

"In recent years, there has been a global call for implementing no-fishing zones for protecting coral reef ecosystems. However, the threats of climate change, water quality, and physical disturbances severely outweigh the threat of fishing in Florida where fisheries management is strong. In addition, scientific evidence suggests that no-fishing zones have not benefited coral reefs in the Florida Keys and that the vast
majority of coral loss in Florida has been due to bleaching, disease, sedimentation, physical damage, and other human-induced environmental factors.

In summary, the Commission opposes restricting public access to areas where other actions are more appropriate and is committed to supporting the coral reef ecosystem across the seascape. If you have any questions regarding the Commission’s position on no-fishing zones, please contact Jessica McCawley,
Director of Division of Marine Fisheries Management at 850-487-0554."

FYI, Tony






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Old 01-08-2016, 11:35 AM   #9
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Re: Ban scuba spearing

I've spent most of my life spearfishing in countries where scuba spearing was not allowed... The only real benefit was that reef species below 100 feet depth became thicker.....BUT.... AS professional overfishing with nets and lines and the various form of pollution continued to rise, we could all observe a steady decline of fishes all around, and even what was caught by the PRO, including those freedivers that could go really deep, became progressively smaller.
I Believe that scuba spearfishing, performed in a lawful and responsible manner is not a factor significantly influencing the general reef impoverishment that we see.
I took the survey....
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Old 01-08-2016, 12:18 PM   #10
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Re: Ban scuba spearing

I'd be surprised if ALL spearfishing took more than the effects of pollution,hook and line bycatch and discards or lionfish predation singly.
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Old 01-08-2016, 12:30 PM   #11
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Re: Ban scuba spearing

That'd be awesome!!!!!! I filled it out too. Guess which boxes I checked? Even though I know banning SCUBA spearfishing won't have any impact on fish populations (just look at the Bahamas).

Scott
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Old 01-08-2016, 12:52 PM   #12
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Re: Ban scuba spearing

Quote:
Originally Posted by Muay Thai View Post
That'd be awesome!!!!!! I filled it out too. Guess which boxes I checked? Even though I know banning SCUBA spearfishing won't have any impact on fish populations (just look at the Bahamas).

Scott
Did you read WHY they want to ban (scuba) spearfishing? One of the reasons is because they claim that the spearos are selectively removing the largest individuals, the most fecund and important reproductively. This same argument can be applied toward the breathhold spearo as well.

The practice of divide and separate is clearly being applied here. Selectively regulating gear types is unnecessarily discriminatory in my opinion - especially one which has a lower bycatch rate than many other methods.
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Old 01-08-2016, 01:03 PM   #13
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Re: Ban scuba spearing

SCUBA spearfishing is banned throughout much of the rest of the World but yet not 1 Country comes to mind that has banned freedive spearfishing. Do you really think the USA will be the one to set the precedent? I don't.

But maybe you're right and we should just keep things the way they are so, everyone can scrounge around all day in hope of maybe bringing a porgy home for dinner once in awhile. Things are so bad in WPB, your own son doesn't even want to spearfish anymore and yet you try to blame the lack of fish on anything/everything but spearfishing. Do you really believe WPB having no fish is due to all the other reasons everybody stated and not spearfishing? If that's the case, how do explain an hour up the coast where me and Fab usually stop shooting fish for the day when we hit the point of not wanting to clean anymore (which usually happens before noon). Is there no runoff, pollution, and habitat destruction in Stuart, Ft. Pierce, Sebastian? And if it's not overfishing devastating fishery resources, how did the red snapper and goliath grouper numbers increase so dramatically? If spearfishing is having no effect, where the hell did all the goliaths come from? Why isn't pollution, runoff, and habitat destruction killing them just like all the other fish?

Scott

Last edited by Muay Thai; 01-08-2016 at 01:19 PM.
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Old 01-08-2016, 01:42 PM   #14
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Re: Ban scuba spearing

OK but no more emergency pony bottle on your boat!!!!
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Old 01-08-2016, 02:00 PM   #15
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Re: Ban scuba spearing

Just food for thought. I can't imagine less people shooting fish in WPB would be a bad thing and induce a much more immediate population response than lowering pollution or runoff, but maybe I'm wrong.

Scott
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