Spearfishing, especially while free-diving, is one of the fastest growing water sports in the world. All it takes is a pair of fins, mask, snorkel and a good entry level speargun to get started with little expense. We on the Treasure Coast are blessed with many reefs and structures close to shore, offering ventures into the underwater world from the beach without the high cost of boats, charters and fuel.
The challenge of hunting a fish in its environment while holding your breath is exhilarating, and can become addictive. There is not any user group of our underwater resources that is more environmentally friendly than spear fishermen and women. There is no mistaken identity, unwanted bycatch and very few wounded or unrecovered fish. We will make many dives in a day, and most of the time we never come close to reaching our legal bag limits. It takes a lot of effort, intestinal fortitude, and good physical conditioning to be successful while using only one breath per dive. Free-diving has become an extreme sport, which is helping to propel its popularity, and is a lot of fun, whether you are diving off the beach, blue water hunting for wahoo or shooting cobia off rays.
Safety of course, is our foremost concern. All spearfishing activity should be under a Divers Down Flag, and you should have knowledge of the State and Federal Fisheries regulations.
Hopefully, in the future, I will be able to cover more details of this sport that will really get you back in tune with yourself and the sea.
Contributed by: Kim W0jo, Team RealSea