Hi Guys,

I'm with Corry here. Happy to debate with you the issues you raise here, but in another forum. But whatever forum, you won't change my mind and I am unlikely to change yours.

This place is for dive talk. Dive safely and remember that if you are new to the sport and keen as mustard, you are in the band of divers most likely to kill themselves in a blackout. Time in the water and perseverance will give you good fish, just be patient. No fish is worth a life, if you can't hang on long enough, leave quietly and you will often get a second chance. And lastly, if you are going to push your boundaries, make sure someone is watching your rear end.

Cheers,

Tony

Agreed that we should keep this about spearfishing, but the topic title is the green movement vs conservation.

This has a HUGE impact on our sport, probably one of the biggest.

If we look at first world countries and the impact the putrid green movement has had on the sport it is horrific. There are now more sanctuary and park areas in countries like Australia and America. In principle parks and no go zones are good. I agree completely with them, but the way the greenies go about it is so bad.

Australia is a very outdorsy type of country much like our own and many of the citizens are fisher/hunter types. The greenies have succeeded in making it more tough for this to happen. As a result politics has had to mix with sport. As much as I hate this it was a forced thing. There is literally a Green party (political) in OZ and they enforce nonsensical legislation to benefit their own agendas. As a result there is now a hunters and fishers Party that are countering this in certain area.

Let me just pause here and say I completely agree with the initial vein of this tread in terms of conservation. The Hunting fraternity in South Africa is largely responsible for much of the conservation that occurs. Of course as if they did not their sport would be in threat and they realised that the very old school way of shoot anything that moves and heap your body count is backward. So i am all for conservation and believe that we as spearos are the most likely to be coming across the individuals that give our sport a bad name. It grinds me when I see poachers coming out the water with 30 crayfish, some of which are in berry and others undersize. It is our responsibility to report these clowns. I know that the oke will just get a slap on the wrist and a suspended sentence but it is something at least.

Moving away from OZ and closer to home. In SA spearos are responsible for less than 1% of all fish that are taken in South African waters but there are legislation that allow fisherman to catch species but spearos are not allowed.

In one sense it is good that the powers that be in this country are more concerned with lining their own pockets as they could not care less what the greenies say but at the same time there are cases where for instance the whole area around aliwal including the shore areas form Green point to like scotties is mooted at becoming a no take zone. Like what the heck, that would be very sad.

So while I do share the creationist view I think there are too many unscrupulous rapers out there for us all to simply be allowed to just do as we please. There does need to be regulations, rules, sanctuaries and no take zones. The motivation for this should however be right and we as spearos and fisherfolk MUST make sure our voice is heard through the right channels in order to prevent our sport being taken away from us. Case in point, a cross bow is now illegal in Western Australia due to some clown getting his way. So sorry for you if you are a bow hunter.

Thanks for letting me stand on my soap box.

I guess I needed to get this specific message across much better - that we as spearos, who love the ocean should take a leading role in protecting the environment that we play in. As flesh and blood men/ women, we stand under the protection of natural law and we have the power to apply this law against 'law breakers' in their personal capacities.

We should become activists ourselves by writing stories for newspapers, magazines, get on TV etc as an example. If we start promoting the sport and the sustainability of it publicly, we will help educate the ignorant out there and I think the general negative perceptions in the public will then be changed.

How can all the spearo clubs embark on a campaign to work towards such a goal? I speak as a newbie and might be touching on topics that SAUFF is already working on

I don't know about you guys, but when Hilton spoke on TV news after the Nationals, I felt proud to tell people that I also started speardiving recently