Freediving/Spearfishing

[kirkinpattaya]

any spearos out there? if so, where are you diving and what are you spearing? bluewater or reef? what kind of gear are you using?

[antony77]

I've done a lot of productive free diving spearfishing in Thailand but not much recently. SCUBA divers have frightened most of the large fish away and overfishing has almost wiped the smaller fish out of the Thai Gulf.

But there are always a lot of pelagic fish around like queen fish which come and go. If you can find an island or spot where there are no SCUBA divers around and swim slowly around I think you still have a chance of spearing a decent fish or too. There are still a lot of Barracuda around but I don't like eating them.

Now the south east monsoon is over you could try some more remote places off the west coast.

I used a Nemrod compressed air (hydraulic) speargun. You can adjust the power to suit your own strength. Also a good tip. If you see a large fish on the bottom, take your snorkel out and put it in your belt before diving down. Even the small amount of escaping bubbles scare fish away.

good luck

Edited October 21, 2010 by antony77

[Crushdepth]

The lack of large fish has got nothing to do with divers, its the incredible fishing pressure.

[antony77]

The lack of large fish has got nothing to do with divers, its the incredible fishing pressure.

It has everything to do with SCUBA. Fish are very sensitive to sound especially sharks. Escaping air bubbles sound like a motor bike without an exhaust to fish. There is no overfishing in the Maldives but all the sharks and very large fish are no longer around in any numbers due to SCUBA divers scaring them away. Every time I used to don SCUBA to photograph large fish they all completely disappeared very quickly. There is an Island on Australias Great Barrier Reef that is unlike any other. No SCUBA only snorkelling. It is like an overstocked aquarium.

[Crushdepth]

Sorry but you really have this wrong. The lack of large fish in Thailand is because the fisheries are so hammered (I work in government fisheries area). I know what a pristine reef looks like because I also used to work as a snorkelling guide on a protected reef in the great barrier reef marine park. I don't generally find it harder to observe fish on SCUBA than by snorkelling. With some fish its actually easier because you can afford to wait for them to come in.

I would agree that noise can put sharks off, as the reef I worked on certainly had a lot of large sharks (the pilots could see them), but they didn't come within the snorkeling area near the pontoon, just the odd reef shark. I don't think it was SCUBA noise that put them off - it was more likely the generators and hundreds of tourists thrashing about every day. And they certainly didn't leave the entire reef - they just stayed a couple of hundred metres away.

[stevenl]

It has everything to do with SCUBA. Fish are very sensitive to sound especially sharks. Escaping air bubbles sound like a motor bike without an exhaust to fish. There is no overfishing in the Maldives but all the sharks and very large fish are no longer around in any numbers due to SCUBA divers scaring them away. Every time I used to don SCUBA to photograph large fish they all completely disappeared very quickly. There is an Island on Australias Great Barrier Reef that is unlike any other. No SCUBA only snorkelling. It is like an overstocked aquarium.

On the Maldives are no more sharks because they have all been caught by fishers. Nothing to do with scuba divers. The situation is improving now that a calculation has been made and the value of a living shark was compared to that of a dead one. So also the fishers now realise it is not a good idea to catch them away.

[Crushdepth]

The Maldives introduced a total shark fishing ban about 3 months ago, Palau did the same thing last year.

Edited October 22, 2010 by Crushdepth

[antony77]

I am writing from experience. Quote from my book below

QUOTE We anchored, and holding our breaths descended the reef face about 60 feet and were rewarded with the most incredible sights.The visibility was about 300 feet. Thousands of sharks were milling around with all sorts of fish, including huge tuna. A fourteen foot tiger shark swam up to me and was almost close enough to touch. Giant, colourful fish passed within inches .Jacques and I agreed that we’d never seen anything quite like it anywhere else in the world. I tried to film the fish using SCUBA gear and the large cumbersome 16 mm underwater camera and housing, but as soon as I went below with SCUBA all of the big the fish disappeared as the noise of the escaping bubbles frightened them away. If only I had the compact technology that is available to-day I could have filmed it without the SCUBA.. I had had no such problems previously when I used Oxygen re-breathers, but I had to give up on them due to the dangers using them.UNQUOTE

I never noticed any shark fishing in the Maldives. It is a low priced fish they seemed to go for the higher priced

ones.

Overfishing has indeed resulted in the huge depletion of fish in Thailand so I am not blaming SCUBA divers for this. I just maintain that the fish avoid SCUBA divers and go somewhere else.

[stevenl]

You quote YOUR book as proof for YOUR opinion? :lol:

I hope the same nonsense you wrote here 'I had had no such problems previously when I used Oxygen re-breathers, but I had to give up on them due to the dangers using them' and mistakes 'all of the big the fish' are not in your book?

[antony77]

You quote YOUR book as proof for YOUR opinion? :lol:

I hope the same nonsense you wrote here 'I had had no such problems previously when I used Oxygen re-breathers, but I had to give up on them due to the dangers using them' and mistakes 'all of the big the fish' are not in your book?

I am sure you have a vested interest in SCUBA instruction. I used Draeger Oxygen re-breathers with members of the Hans Haas Expedition. In those days the full effects of breathing compressed pure oxygen were not fully known. All the world famous TV underwater films that Haas made were filmed using re-breathers because of the problems with SCUBA scaring the big fish away. Cousteau also had this problem and I discussed it with him. He gave me the very first Calypso underwater camera to try out (now called Nikonos). Award winning underwater photographer Benn Cropp who I filmed with did all his underwater filming without SCUBA for the same reason. But perhaps you have never heard of any of these people who do share my opinions about SCUBA.

I think perhaps you owe me an apology for your remarks

[stevenl]

Why would I ow you an apology? You still quote your book as proof for your opinion, which does not make much sense.

Oxygen rebreathers are really an exception, and have only been used by a very limited number of persons for a relatively limited time. Very soon the use of rebreathers has changed to less than 100% oxygen. And rebreathers are perfectly safe, no reason at all not to use them.

[h90]

The lack of large fish has got nothing to do with divers, its the incredible fishing pressure.

It has everything to do with SCUBA. Fish are very sensitive to sound especially sharks. Escaping air bubbles sound like a motor bike without an exhaust to fish. There is no overfishing in the Maldives but all the sharks and very large fish are no longer around in any numbers due to SCUBA divers scaring them away. Every time I used to don SCUBA to photograph large fish they all completely disappeared very quickly. There is an Island on Australias Great Barrier Reef that is unlike any other. No SCUBA only snorkelling. It is like an overstocked aquarium.

Sharks are reduced because of the finning which happens everywhere. I have seen sharks and they weren't afraid of my air bubbles

[h90]

I am writing from experience. Quote from my book below

QUOTE We anchored, and holding our breaths descended the reef face about 60 feet and were rewarded with the most incredible sights.The visibility was about 300 feet. Thousands of sharks were milling around with all sorts of fish, including huge tuna. A fourteen foot tiger shark swam up to me and was almost close enough to touch. Giant, colourful fish passed within inches .Jacques and I agreed that we’d never seen anything quite like it anywhere else in the world. I tried to film the fish using SCUBA gear and the large cumbersome 16 mm underwater camera and housing, but as soon as I went below with SCUBA all of the big the fish disappeared as the noise of the escaping bubbles frightened them away. If only I had the compact technology that is available to-day I could have filmed it without the SCUBA.. I had had no such problems previously when I used Oxygen re-breathers, but I had to give up on them due to the dangers using them.UNQUOTE

I never noticed any shark fishing in the Maldives. It is a low priced fish they seemed to go for the higher priced

ones.

Overfishing has indeed resulted in the huge depletion of fish in Thailand so I am not blaming SCUBA divers for this. I just maintain that the fish avoid SCUBA divers and go somewhere else.

"Quote from my book below" :lol:

As proof that they won't be scared away I can quote from a other posting of mine :lol:

Fact is that sharks are heavily reduced in areas without scuba, fact is also that environmentalists are checking riffs and populations with scuba gears....

[limbos]

You quote YOUR book as proof for YOUR opinion? :lol:

I hope the same nonsense you wrote here 'I had had no such problems previously when I used Oxygen re-breathers, but I had to give up on them due to the dangers using them' and mistakes 'all of the big the fish' are not in your book?

I am sure you have a vested interest in SCUBA instruction. I used Draeger Oxygen re-breathers with members of the Hans Haas Expedition. In those days the full effects of breathing compressed pure oxygen were not fully known. All the world famous TV underwater films that Haas made were filmed using re-breathers because of the problems with SCUBA scaring the big fish away. Cousteau also had this problem and I discussed it with him. He gave me the very first Calypso underwater camera to try out (now called Nikonos). Award winning underwater photographer Benn Cropp who I filmed with did all his underwater filming without SCUBA for the same reason. But perhaps you have never heard of any of these people who do share my opinions about SCUBA.

I think perhaps you owe me an apology for your remarks

You sure like to throw names around. Don't get me wrong, I do respect these people and they had a big influence on the dive industry but not necessarily everything they did was either important or had an impact. I know that after 12 years of diving around Thailand I see a difference in how fish react to my bubbles today compared to 12 years ago when I started to dive here. In my opinion it's not the bubbles, it's your movements that scares them away although I do grant a little bit to bubbles for scaring them. Not the same impact you give it.

Quoting your own book here is not the strongest way of discussing in this case.

[phaethon]

The lack of large fish has got nothing to do with divers, its the incredible fishing pressure.

This guy seems to be doing alright...

[Crushdepth]

In my opinion it's not the bubbles, it's your movements that scares them away although I do grant a little bit to bubbles for scaring them. Not the same impact you give it.

I fully agree. I'm not saying bubbles have zero impact, obviously they do. But I can usually get quite close to large fish with a little care. If you slow down and stay still they will often come in for a look, or at least let you get much closer than if you swim towards them.

I've just spent the last week diving on Koh Tao, and frankly there's a hel_l of a lot more large fish here than at Pattaya, especially grouper and emperors. Why? The constant presence of appallingly high numbers of dive boats keeps the fishermen off. If divers drove fish away there'd be nothing here.

If only the titan triggerfish were afraid of divers

[longway]

Has anyone taken any free dive courses in Thailand? From googling I found 2 on Koh Tao and possibly one on Phuket. Anyone care to post about their good or bad experiences with the instructors and free diving itself.

I am quite interested in doing the AIDA** ocourse, more as an adjunct to scuba, to help reduce oxygen consumption and just learning to relax more, than an end in itself.

It sounds quite nice in some ways, but if I try to hold my breath for more than 1:30 I feel terrible, how difficult is it to go beyond your untrained limits?

[longway]

I guess free divers must be shy retiring types. Never mind.

[limbos]

Has anyone taken any free dive courses in Thailand? From googling I found 2 on Koh Tao and possibly one on Phuket. Anyone care to post about their good or bad experiences with the instructors and free diving itself.

I am quite interested in doing the AIDA** ocourse, more as an adjunct to scuba, to help reduce oxygen consumption and just learning to relax more, than an end in itself.

It sounds quite nice in some ways, but if I try to hold my breath for more than 1:30 I feel terrible, how difficult is it to go beyond your untrained limits?

Blue Planet Divers on Koh Lanta offer freediving under AIDA. Good team and great diving!