When Sport Divers Meet Spearfishers

Jacob Dalhoff Steensen of Paralenz, the Danish manufacturer of the diver's POV camera, wrote to Undercurrent concerning spearfishing. The ecologically minded company has put together a code-of-conduct for spearfishing, urging spearfishers to restrict themselves to unendangered species, and to follow local laws on legal catches, size restrictions, closed seasons and protected marine areas. The goal is to spear sustainably.

Paralenz urges spearfishers to only catch what they are going to eat and to prevent injuring and losing fish.

All well and good. But in most countries, it is illegal to spearfish on scuba. Not so throughout the U.S. So when Paralenz urges spearfishers to respect other ocean enthusiasts, it reminds us that scuba divers often find themselves sharing the water (especially around Florida's shallower wrecks) with divers equipped to kill things.

It's not a good feeling to come face-to-face with a diver with a powerful supergun, primed and ready to shoot, as I once did in the confines of the Spiegel Grove wreck in the Florida Keys. At best, it takes the fun out of a dive.

-- John Bantin