Lately I heard rumours about guys who do spearfishing with cylinders as their full time job had applied for a special licence so they can do their job legally .Could this thing be done? >:( >:( >:(
It can be done. For example in northern europe, in some countries members of the EU spearfishing at night is allowed since daylight hours are minimal.
The local government can push this but that would be really the cherry on the cake.
Can I please ask you from where did you hear this?
I know of someone from msida who goes out every single day diving with cylinders using spearguns. It is an everyday job no matter what weather it is. If its rough outside they go inside the harbour and always come in with a load of fish.
what are they aloud to catch Charlie? For example, whats about rizzi? Is it leagale or illegale to pick up?
they go for fish and octopus and they do great catches they go for fish at 50-60m depth and at 8m to 15 for octopus
thats not good and not fair. First of all for the fish and even for the spearos and anglers who go for sport. If they do it with apnea, then as like an italian law, then I agree with it. With apnea one is restricted to a number of chatches and deapth.
In 50-60mtr although its a high deapth a lot of scuba is being made. Over there even if they do just a little time, there the fish is completelly friendly. At that deapths the fish will be reproducing so thats the worst thing to do
I can confirm what emic said about the fish at greater depths.
Fish seem to be more friendly less frightened by humans.
As regards to Octupus it is not the first time we caught octupus bare handed (whilst with scuba) to show them to tourists, then we let go.
Regarding Octupus do not think that they are only available at lower depths I have seen a large quantity of Octupus at depts over 40mtrs.
I am from Mellieha and has been diving frequently to 50 mtrs octupus sometimes are very abundant whilst sometimes totally inexistent in the same spots. As what regards to fish they are not that easily approcable with diving aids since the sound produced by the exhailed air seems to scare them. This can be eliminated by a rebreader (I do not know what equipment are these guys using).
Mellieha
License or no license, spearfishing using cylinders is illegal!!
Sometimes they use more than one cylinder and catch boats full of fish!
a lot do spearfishing on a commercial basis with cylinders
you did mention one emic who helped in the search of herbet. i know that person very well. he goes for groupers
the funny thing is that they pay no taxes.. and this is not a one off catch, every single day
in Italy I know 3 guys. Have good contact with one from Bari. Infact he he hear about this topic, he goes crazy. We are in the EU and if they want, they can send people over here to control all this especially if there is a conjunction with the italian market
http://gozodive.com/news/?p=15
This topic is really questionable?????
I do practice both sports, and in the past when it was legal to spearfish with tanks, i also did some. Since the new laws were introduced I did adhere to these, and started apnea seriously, and to say it all it gives me nowadays much greater satisfaction. But when you say that the fish at certain areas and depths are more friendly, you are right but thrust me, with a gun in your hands, they do get scared. And a second thing, when you go down to 50 metre you are really limited with time, adding the noise of the tanks (for sure no rebreathers are used), and the time to take out the fish from some crevice and the time to reload, you will not have much time left???? so what are the heavy catches?
If you stay at 15 metres than that is a different issue.
I am not defending those guys, cause for sure if this is happening, i am completely against, since at the end of the day i am a spearo, but I am just saying that what you hear may not be all true.
hard to believe baghira, i saw this particular person's catch once. 3 gropers of approximately 8.15 kgs each. they were all of the same approximate size. funny to say he smokes like a chimney. if i am not mistaken he uses nitrox
he knows how fond of fishing i am, by no means he is a bad person (he offered me to go with them on his dingy) but what he was doing is illegal. don't know now what he is doing. it is condemnable, for sure
happened to know him when i was searching for a boat, he was fixing a spear, and tried to sell me a scam of a boat(the boat full of cracks, had some tough use)
Maybe they do not make heavy catches with fish but with Octopus and se urchins yes.
I know guys who caught 50Kg octopus and boats full of sea urchins at Marsascala.
They catch even small octopus which myself I call keychains.
At Zonqor spearos where having a good season with octopus in November for a while.
When these scuba divers were informed with the catches the spearos where achieving, they made double dives using more than one cylinder.
There must be some control on the clubs that fill the cylinders of these people.
At zonqor arti there is a scuba diving club which is supposed to help protect the sea but every scuba diver usung a speargun goes there to fill their tanks.
And the worse is that there are guys taking tourists and they spearfish with cylinders themselves.
Diving with Nitrox is a different story as it greatly increases bottom time.
I think one has to try and have fisical proof of what is happening.
then one should pressurise the dive shops that refill them with air. secondly report these individuals to the authorities. They could risk a confscation of all the equipment. etc etc
Adrian
The real problem is that the autorthies are not inforcing the laws, these guys go diving with boats and when a patrol boat or an ale dingy pass near their anchored boat nothing happens surely ,the police will regonize that they are doing illegal spearfishing,and Baghira beleive me these guys are real professionals the catches that they make are really great
1st.. Is sea urchin picking illegal????
2nd. I know that some guy at zonqor fills tanks for these persons on a daily basis. I have witnessed it personally. Those guys only care for their pockets, and as some others mentioned the gov. does not give a shit....... All the gov. wants is the same thing those persons want................Just money.
See the new speed cameras to be installed. And you beleive that it is being done for driver's safety....Come on....
I maybe going a bit out of subject here but spearos with cylinders aren't our only problem as regards to people fishing as a sport/hobby like me. But even boat fishing practically from shore. I mean come on people (for those who have a boat and don't use it adequately!) you have a VERY big sea out there but for some strange reason these people seem to enjoy ruining fishing time for others. Can someone explain this to me. For example just a few days ago I was fishing and a boat stopped in front of me and I can assure you if I was spinning I could catch the man steering the boat.
Some people don't have any respect for others I wish that someday these people meet their match and someone else does the same thing to them!!!
owen in a way you are right that the sea is big and with a boat you can go where you want. but there are some places and some certain fish that to fish for them you have to be close to shore. like barracuda and cervjol and in certain areas like imtahleb for lampuki you have to pass nearly exactly by the rocks. there are also those who use the imrejkba for lampuki. when they are fishing you cant pass near the shore some of them go out more than 300 meters out. so even if you have a boat you cant go always where you want. so if a net is not being used everyone can fish near each other if you are fishing from shore and the other guy is fishing from the boat. the fish chooses the lure or bait so you have the same chances in that same strech of sea.
Agree with you 100% busu ;)
ok. i can understand that busu. BUT let's say that you are fishing for kahli (don't know it in english). I know that normally the sea has to be a bit rough to fish for them, but there are boats that can withstand rough seas and it passes within 100m from you, do you think that the fish won't be scared.
And to fish for kahli the sea doesn't have to be always rough as a few weeks ago I met with 2 fisherman who were catching nice sized kahli and the sea was motionless, couldn't figure out how they were managing but they did
dw owenbullu, saddle bream (kahli) are not disturbed by boats. otherwise they won't be caouch by trolling, sometimes with just 30m or even less of line behind the boat
Actually the kahli is atracted to the prop wash ;)
yes but aren't they easily scared?
they are very curious but still very cunning. they aren't afraid of a boat, but are sometimes scarred by the slightest move of a rod or a thick line
Last year we caught some very close to the boat,while we were reeling in.And even on thick line!!I think they were very hungry ;)
Kev dont forget we were using our baby ;)
What type of rixa do you use from the boat can someone help please?
And what spped to you normally cruise
Quote from: baghira on January 22, 2009, 16:39:31 CET
1st.. Is sea urchin picking illegal????
If I am not wrong, sea urchins and shellfish can be picked up, but it's illegal to pickup shellfish and sea urchins from polluted seas (bahar imnigges). Once I saw a notice like this somewhere, if I remeber well.
If someone is better informed, please post.
Mellieha You can use small lures up tp 5cm, small 3cm spinners, silicon sand eels and also white feathers.
As for speed from 3 - 5 knots
Seahunter, I meant sea urchin picking with scuba!!
Sorry i was mistaken.
Does anyone know?
I don't know... ??? ???
I don't know that catching the sea urchins with scuba is illegal or not,but the worst thing is when these guys try to catch the(TAMAL) cause they destroy the seabed to take the tamal out
I knew some guy who used to do that, but to tell you the truth I always questioned myself where the hell is this tamal, how does it look like in its natural habitat? How do they recognise? And for sure this is not done in my areas (north/west), because if so I would have encountered some guy a day or another. I beleive it is mostly done at xghajra area.
I always hear that they go with a pneumatic hammer or some of this kind, and destroy the whole seabed rocks in search of it.??
Mostly are collected from Marsamxett area from Foss toward Pieta. Another place where are frequently collected is from Isla Point. They just use a chipping hammer and yes those unexperienced and greedy will do a lot of damage to the sea bed.
Is this destruction legal or regulated in some way or another?
Sliema area BOXFULS of sea urchins are collected using scuba :(
tamal when i was a 10 year old kid we used to jump in the water and with closed eyes we used to pick up a rock and it used to be full of tamal, probably the water was not more than a metre deep. We never took more than it was necessary. then there where those who started selling them to hotels and bingo....Now its practically impossible to find tamal......
Quote from: shanook on January 29, 2009, 21:33:36 CET
We never took more than it was necessary. then there where those who started selling them to hotels and bingo....Now its practically impossible to find tamal......
The ones who should really care for the tourists (many of which come for our seas) are the main reason of the damage being done to our seas. When seaurchins are picked, tamal or certain fish is cought, most of which is bought by them!!
GĦADDASA BIL-ĦARPUN
24407. L-ONOR. CHRIS AGIUS staqsa lill-Ministru għall-Affarijiet Rurali u Ambjent: Jista' l-Ministru jgħid liema huma dawk l-areas fejn ma jistax isir għadds bil-ħarpun?
12/03/2007
ONOR. GEORGE PULLICINO: Ninsab infurmat li ma jistax isir għadis bil-harpoon f?dawk iż-żoni li huma determinati bħala żoni ta' konservazzjoni mill-Awtorit? għall-Protezzjoni ta? l-Ambjent u kulfejn hemm xi reef artifiċjali impoġġija għal studju jew bħala attrazzjoni turistika għall-għaddasa. Ma jistax isir għadis bil-harpoon ukoll fiż-żoni kollha fejn ma jistax isir sajd skond regolament SL425.01. Għaddis bil-harpoon ma jistax isir imkien jekk l-għaddas ikun ukoll armat bl-aqualung jew bid-dawl. Dan jirriżulta minn Regolament tal-Kunsill tal-Ministri CR1967/2006.
Seduta 510
26/03/2007
thank you emic.
Quote from: EmicMalta on April 27, 2009, 08:50:02 CET
GĦADDASA BIL-ĦARPUN
24407. L-ONOR. CHRIS AGIUS staqsa lill-Ministru għall-Affarijiet Rurali u Ambjent: Jista' l-Ministru jgħid liema huma dawk l-areas fejn ma jistax isir għadds bil-ħarpun?
12/03/2007
ONOR. GEORGE PULLICINO: Ninsab infurmat li ma jistax isir għadis bil-harpoon fdawk iż-żoni li huma determinati bħala żoni ta' konservazzjoni mill-Awtorit? għall-Protezzjoni ta l-Ambjent u kulfejn hemm xi reef artifiċjali impoġġija għal studju jew bħala attrazzjoni turistika għall-għaddasa. Ma jistax isir għadis bil-harpoon ukoll fiż-żoni kollha fejn ma jistax isir sajd skond regolament SL425.01. Għaddis bil-harpoon ma jistax isir imkien jekk l-għaddas ikun ukoll armat bl-aqualung jew bid-dawl. Dan jirriżulta minn Regolament tal-Kunsill tal-Ministri CR1967/2006.
Seduta 510
26/03/2007
The above was discussed in detail here:
http://maltafishingforum.com/talk/index.php/topic,733.105.html