Talk:Spearfishing

Speargun

 * I'm not sure why speargun redirects here and doesn't have it's own page. If no one minds I am going to spin speargun off into it's own page. Beatdown 20:00, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
 * yes please do it. There is much to know about spearguns not directly relevant to this page. (yugyug, not logged in)
 * I have put the speargun stuff in speargun. Anthony Appleyard 13:01, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

Hi wiki fanatics, my name is Callum "craysmash" McKay and yes of course i am a hardcore die hard spearo. me and my buddy baido love to hit the reefs in the boat for adventures and are always up to spear a few along the way. I love long walks along the beach and wet salty kisses by the ocean. If you ever wanna catch up then feel free to email me at allaspearo_thebest@gmail.com thanks for your time guys. Dive safe — Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.29.211.199 (talk) 03:05, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Miscellaneous

 * This article doesn't seem to contain any mention of the kind of spear fishing illustrated in the image. This is still practiced especially as an ice fishing technique. I can't see how to easily integrate this into the current article however. Rmhermen 16:23, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Perhaps a section for indigenous methods of spearfishing should be started. This would mainly comprise above ground techniques as practised by the Australian aborigines. Care should be taken to seperate it from the modern underwater sport however. - yugyug (not logged in though).

History section
The history section is absurd. Why does the most ancient form of fishing have a history that only starts in the 1960s? --86.138.30.6 (talk) 22:23, 14 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes, I agree. I have renamed the History section "Contemporary spear fishing", added a new History section, and added another new section called "Traditional spear fishing". This last section needs more work. --Geronimo20 (talk) 05:51, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

citation for 'more effective'
Thank you for your contribution to spearfishing. However, a statement as straightforward as "Spearfishing today employs modern and more effective elastic or pneumatic powered (spearguns) and slings" don't needs citations. Citations are for statements that are not common sense and might be controversial. Surely you are not disputing that "modern and more effective elastic or pneumatic powered" slings have been developed. The idea is that only statements that might be disputed should be cited. Otherwise, articles would consist of a mass of citations for all sorts of uncontroversial statements, which would clog them and make them rather unreadable. --Geronimo20 (talk) 14:04, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

yes, it is straightforward, but it does not explain, why it is. --88.218.157.173 (talk) 14:13, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure what is worrying you. Early civilizations used sharpened sticks. More recently, we have all these newly developed elastics and so on, which can make spearguns more effective. What is your problem with that? --Geronimo20 (talk) 14:21, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

they also used sharpened stones. did the primitive spears not penetrate the prey as effectively? is that what you are saying? --88.218.157.173 (talk) 14:40, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Okay. If you think it is useful to discuss whether stones are as good as modern materials, then the place to do it is on the Spearfishing talk page. Or perhaps the Speargun talk page. It's 2 am in my time zone. and I'm off to bed. --Geronimo20 (talk) 14:56, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Quality assessment class
This article has been assessed as GA-class apparently by WP:FISHING, but the parameter was added by an IP, and there seems to have been no GA Review. The article is not listed at WP:GA. Do others agree with me that the article's lead doesn't summarise the rest of the article and contains material not covered elsewhere? As such, it would (imho) not even meet B-class. --RexxS (talk) 23:34, 10 September 2009 (UTC)


 * I agree with you and have reassessed it at C-grade. --Geronimo20 (talk) 01:51, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Picture
The picture at the top is not what typically is thought of when talking about modern spearfishing. The picture would be better in the gigging article. Should one of the pictures farther down replace that one? Beach drifter (talk) 02:46, 25 October 2010 (UTC)
 * The Peruvian depicted may not have the same concept of modern spearfishing as we do :) - but go ahead and be BOLD. I certainly think the picture could be used in both articles, so add it to Gigging wherever you think best. If you think one of the existing images would make a better lead image, I'd suggest you just swap them. --RexxS (talk) 03:00, 25 October 2010 (UTC)
 * There are very few free underwater photos for illustration. So the uploading of underwater photos to commons.wikimedia.org will significantly improve the article: blue water hunting with flasher, storing, using camouflage, freshwater, competitions, lady spearfishing etc. SamuLahti (talk) 17:23, 23 September 2017 (UTC)

"Boat Diving" Section
It mentions using scuba equipment is "frowned upon" and "illegal" in the intro but makes no mention of it in this section. Also, is the "Gulf of Florida" supposed to be the "Gulf of Mexico"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Droopy3 (talk • contribs) 14:29, 15 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Some pretty poor writing has been added with a couple of the last edits. I'm going to try to reword some of it and remove the bolder unsourced parts. Beach drifter (talk) 01:43, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

Notable spearfishers
This section started out as See also links to other Wikipedia articles but has grown, so I've moved it out of See also to its own section. I'm generally not in favour of "laundry lists of famous xyz", but there is some potential to create articles on notable individuals. I've added cites where I could find them - none of which are particularly good, but there does seem some degree of notability. I've culled the names where I could find no evidence; if somebody wants to add names to a list of "notable spearfishers", it seems they ought to at least supply some evidence that the named individuals are (or were) notable spearfishers. I can find passing mention of Ismail "Miles" Sonday, but nothing substantial, however I'm aware that the English Wikipedia's (and Google's) coverage of people beyond the USA and UK is often relatively sparse, so it's probably best not to cut too harshly. Peter, does your local knowledge of South Africa cast any light on the list, Ismail Sonday in particular? --RexxS (talk) 13:14, 14 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Tommy Botha is something of a legendary figure in SA spearfishing, and was one when I had more contact with spearos. I have never heard of Ismail Sonday, and Rob Allen is also unfamiliar. This does not mean much - I don't associate with spearos much these days, not many are members of the scuba crowd I have more contact with. Back in the day we were all members of the same clubs, but no more. Cheers, &bull; &bull; &bull; Peter (Southwood) (talk): 15:06, 19 April 2015 (UTC)


 * Rob Allen is both a person and a South Africa company, which I believe he owns and runs with business partner Jeremy Spencer (Englishman?), who designs much of the equipment. Based at the Dive Factory, Natal, ZA. Their tough spearfishing products (inc. their famous railguns, spears, floats, DVDs, floatlines, clips, bags, breakaway-rigs, slip-tips, wishbones, rubbers) are sold worldwide (inc. UK, EU, USA, Oz, Middle East, etc.). Rob has also undertaken quite a lot of research and development, esp. w.r.t. spears, which he sometimes publishes/discusses on public forums such as DeeperBlue.com and others.


 * Ismail "Miles" Sonday was also very active of spearfishing forums worldwide, often using the name "Miles". He wrote several of the long lived introductory "Dummy's Guide to" key aspects of spearfishing on DeeperBlue.com e.g. https://www.deeperblue.com/the-dummies-guide-to-spearfishing/ e.g. https://forums.deeperblue.com/forums/beginner-spearfishing.61/ e.g. https://forums.deeperblue.com/threads/dummies-guide-to-spearfishing-part-i.65300/ e.g. https://forums.deeperblue.com/threads/dummies-guide-to-rigging-a-speargun.64504/ where he was a "staff member" & "Team leader" for some time. A South African, friend and dive buddy of Tommy Botha. I believe he and Tommy were sponsored by Predator spearguns for a while - although Tommy also makes spearguns and Miles used various brands (inc. C4), most often Rabitech.  He is most noted for spearing yellow fin tuna but he also a formidable (fresh and saltwater) rod angler, having fished in Africa, the UK and Canada (where he caught sturgeon!).  I believe he eventually became a full-time professional fisherman/fishing guide.  His wife, a doctor, also spearfished.

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Spearfishing. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20070927134426/http://www.frivannsliv.no/spearfishing.no/Spearfishing.html to http://www.frivannsliv.no/spearfishing.no/Spearfishing.html

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Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 03:41, 18 October 2015 (UTC)

Notable spearfishers again
I've just reverted the removal of a number of sourced entries in the list by, along with an undiscussed change to the inclusion criteria.

I am by no means opposed to cutting trivia out of the list, but I simply don't agree a change to criteria which results, for example, in the removal of Raymond Pulvénis (who is clearly an important early promoter of the sport), while retaining Ian Fleming who is notable for many things, but not as a spearfisher.

Under the current criteria, someone could add Bob Marley as he has an article. After all, he probably had as much opportunity to go spearfishing in Jamaica as Fleming did.

If we can agree new criteria, perhaps a reliable source that names someone as a spearfisher, I'd be delighted to see the list trimmed. --RexxS (talk) 18:07, 7 July 2019 (UTC)

I entirely agree with RexxS. To support the inclusion of an individual, the list requires evidence from a citation referring to his/her role in promoting/developing spearfishing, not a link to a Wikipedia article that may or may not mention the person's spearfishing activities. Pulvénis was a very significant pioneer in the French spearfishing world, authoring the first book on the subject, designing/patenting early masks/snorkels and founding the Nice-based Watersports spearfishing equipment manufacturing company that played an important part in Mediterranean spearfishing during the 1950s.Helmardine (talk) 04:06, 8 July 2019 (UTC)