Thread: Spearfishing

If i were to anchor a kayak a couple hundred yards off the pier would it be legal to spearfish for sharks? The only problem i see with that is taking the kayak in because you cant clean fish on the water but you cant bring sharks ashore... Ive been wanting to shoot stuff bigger than the inshore species around here but i dont have a boat that can get to deep water so why not take out a few sharks around the pier

If you can't bring them ashore, then you'd just de-spear them after somehow dispatching them (Pretty sure that's not legal, anyway)? Wouldn't that just provide easy meals for more sharks and draw even more sharks to the area? Plus, if you spear a shark in a kayak, isn't it possible that the shark would take you under/into the pier? That doesn't seem like a safe situation!

Even if shark catches are allowed from the pier itself, there's still the issue of dumping the shark carcass in the area around the pier, which creates a shark-attracting feature. I think that the only solution for taking some of the sharks out of the immediate area is to allow limited fishing for them with the carcasses hauled elsewhere (way offshore?) for disposal.

Oh PLEASE!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_repellent

Research indicates that sharks will avoid an area when they smell chemical released by dead and dying sharks. Six chemicals were synthesized from shark glands and tissues and used in experiments. Sharks immediately reacted once they detected these chemicals. To quote a 2004 Associated Press article, "Fisherman and scientists have long noted sharks stay away if they smell a dead shark."^[3]
The scientists behind these advances are Eric Stroud and Patrick Rice^[

Im not too worried about sharks attacking me because ive heard sharks are repelled by shark blood, and no its not illegal to kill a shark that you have speared, thats what kill knives are for and almost the sharks ive seen around the pier arent too big and arent big enough to drag my floatline very far at all. Plus even with a shark, I probably look about 8 feet tall with my fins on and sharks usually wont attack anything that big.

I started typing when you posted Pier#r haha

Originally Posted by Pier#r

Oh PLEASE!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_repellent

But don't sharks EAT other sharks? A documentary I saw recently said that a favorite food of sharks is -- other sharks. If sharks were repelled by other sharks dying, then they'd be repelled by their own feeding frenzies. I think that the theory of sharks being repelled by shark-deaths was concocted by people trying to sell shark repellent.

I have experienced this phenomenon fishing for sharks in the passes of the central FL Panhandle. Let a dead shark leak juice into the water and you can hang it up for the rest of the night.

Originally Posted by fishchaser1003

Im not too worried about sharks attacking me because ive heard sharks are repelled by shark blood, and no its not illegal to kill a shark that you have speared, thats what kill knives are for and almost the sharks ive seen around the pier arent too big and arent big enough to drag my floatline very far at all. Plus even with a shark, I probably look about 8 feet tall with my fins on and sharks usually wont attack anything that big.

So sharks DON'T eat other sharks? How could they, if they're repelled by shark blood? I said it's not legal because you said this: "i dont have a boat that can get to deep water so why not take out a few sharks around the pier"


What it sounds like you're wanting to do is to shoot sharks, let them tire themselves out, die, then retrieve your spear and continue shooting sharks. The dead one sinks to the bottom and -- the dying shark scares the other sharks away and the ones it doesn't scare away get shot and the process repeated?

I'm sorry, but this just smacks of self serving thrill seeking; nothing sporting or ecology minded.

Originally Posted by bodebum

I'm sorry, but this just smacks of self serving thrill seeking; nothing sporting or ecology minded.

Plus, I don't see the attraction of shooting a single small shark (One is the limit, right?). I found it amusing that "sharks don't USUALLY attack anything that big". Miscalculations and sharks make for a bad combination!