crazy animal encounters

Hunting is as much a part of my life as surfing... except one has a season and the other does not. Same with fishing/spearfishing. It's something I love, that I grew up doing, and has always been... and always will be... a part of who I am.

I believe we all have a natural, evolutionary drive to hunt and kill. Especially the males in or species. Things like competitive sports and video games are just bastardizations of this normal, healthy, natural instinct.

But trophy hunting? I just don't get it, and I'm as against it as anyone else. I think it's sick.

Am I a hypocrite?

 

Dude that is badass

 

No.

Killing for sport without taking the meat is just bad juju

EDIT: you mean there's no surfing season?

 

Yup. Sorry, but you are. Spearfishing IS trophy hunting. And, unfortunately it is devastating to the coral reef population balance. We select out major adult predators (groupers, snappers, etc).

 

Not to disagree with you, BC... I do believe there's something hypocritical about my attitude. I will say, however, that personally, my spearfishing is limited to fluke, bass, blackfish... stuff you'd fish for hook and line in NJ, legally and sustainably. But you are right... there are absolutely those out there that trophy hunt with a speargun.

And in THAT lies the hypocritical part. If someone trophy hunts legally, don't they have a right to do it? Again... personally... I think there's something wrong with those people. It literally nauseates me. But then again, they probably think what I do is stupid, too.

 

Spear fishing IS NOT trophy hunting. You can trophy hunt with a spear but killing what you eat is not trophy hunting.
If you eat fish from a store YOU are hurting the fish population

 

Haha good one dude, one of my faves lol

 

What Barry said.

 

Store bought fish, where I live, are NOT from coral reefs-they are from large schools. I was talking about reef populations.
I spearfished for years as a kid in PR. I speaketh from experience, not from book-learning. One does have a tendency to seek out the larger groupers, snappers, snooks, etc. Sometimes when you spear them larger ones, they yank your arm out of thy socket!!
Your point of catching what you eating is correct-agreed!

 

Yup. I agree with everything you are saying... spear fishing can be trophy hunting but it can also be the most responsible/ethical way to catch a fish.

 

Without a doubt. No by-catch! No gill- or gut-hooked fish that die after release! It kills me to see guys fishing from the beach all summer for fluke, and all they do is kill skates and dogfish and sea robins, one after another, all day long. Terrible....

 

It's unsustainable. The planet & every species upon it are doomed.

 

...including Homo sapiens.

 

and straight sapiens too

 

Fish are yummy