On this page we answer some common miscellaneous questions regarding spearfishing, such as questions of ethics. If you’re just starting out, why not check out our great value packages?
Is spearfishing sustainable/environmentally friendly?
You may be wondering if spearfishing for food is a sustainable choice or an environmentally friendly way to eat.
Spearfishing is the most selective and sustainable form of fishing out there. With traditional fishing being rod and line, netting or long liners, there's always a larger element of bycatch. It has been shown that whilst some of the super trawlers have a quota for say 40,000 tonnes of a particular type of fish, they will actually catch 200,000 tonnes of that type of fish and just keep the good sized ones and discard the smaller sized ones back into the ocean dead. They do this because the bigger fish attract better prices.
Consider that for every wild caught fish that we see for sale in the supermarket, two others have died through the process of bycatch because they're ether undersized or they're not a permitted species of fish, so they're just thrown back dead.
Aside from that, nets and long lining are indiscriminate so you never know what species you are going to catch - and that species may be protected so it's thrown back dead, or it might be undersized so it's thrown back dead. With spearfishing you only shoot what you see in front of you and you know you want to take for the table so it's the most selective form of fishing.