spearfishing

annR · 01-08-2005 9:00am #1

Hi

What's the legal status of spearfishing in Ireland?

Ann

CJhaughey · 01-08-2005 9:15am

Legal.
Why do you ask?

donny · 01-08-2005 5:17pm

AFAIK its only legal on freediving and snorkelling. It's illegal on SCUBA but you might want to check elsewhere

CJhaughey · 01-08-2005 6:00pm

donny wrote:

AFAIK its only legal on freediving and snorkelling. It's illegal on SCUBA but you might want to check elsewhere

Nope there are no restrictions on spearfishing of any sort , Breathhold or Scuba.

annR · 02-08-2005 8:20am

Was asking with regard to free diving. I've googled and googled and come up with nothing.

Are you *sure* it's legal on scuba?

I thought you couldn't collect anything while on scuba?

I will ask CFT they might know.

CJhaughey · 02-08-2005 9:00am

No point asking CFT they wouldn't know one end of a speargun from another.
Scuba divers cannot collect shellfish Byelaw 533 1967
Spearfishing is unregulated, basically there are not enough people doing it to make a law for it.

annR · 02-08-2005 10:28am

Ah ok thanks. Anyone tried it?

CJhaughey · 02-08-2005 10:37am

Yep all the time, what do you want to know?

annR · 02-08-2005 11:20am

Whether it's illegal or not was the main thing I wanted to know so glad that's out of the way. Just something I plan to try out during a break out west, but won't be getting into it seriously.

CJhaughey · 02-08-2005 12:30pm

The only issue is related to the type of speargun.
Pneumatic spearguns are classed as Firearms.
If you have a rubber powered gun you are fine.

djk1000 · 16-08-2005 9:52am

Spoke to a garda friend of mine, he hadn't a clue but he did say that he thinks it's one of those classic legal grey areas where a gard could probably charge you for a firearms offence for posessing a speargun but a conviction is by no means guaranteed. I have a speargun and go camping on the west coast a few times a year, there is nothing like catching your lunch and eating it minutes later.

CJhaughey · 29-08-2005 7:03pm

Any Joy AnnR?
I haven't had much time to kill.... but have managed a few Bass and Pollock and Mackerel so far.

annR · 30-08-2005 8:10am

Hi,

Just went one day with my brother, didn't catch anything, conditions weren't great. My brother did see a baby sunfish hiding in the kelp though, which I thought was really strange.

A

CJhaughey · 30-08-2005 10:01am

That is very strange, sunfish are normally a open sea pelagic species.

annR · 30-08-2005 11:13am

I know, it's very strange. Maybe a baby drifted up and decided to come inshore for shelter. Or maybe there's enough sunfish around the coast to start breeding here! There's a good few of them at the moment.

CJhaughey · 30-08-2005 7:31pm

Definately Mola Mola? not a triggerfish by any chance?

annR · 31-08-2005 11:34am

What he described to me sounded like mola mola .. . . maybe he got it wrong but believe me I made him describe it in detail!

What depth did you catch your fish at? I would have thought it would be quite hard to spear mackeral.

CJhaughey · 31-08-2005 12:12pm

It is hard to spear mackerel.you have to select one fish and track it, I have tried firing blindly at a school but it is of no use.
I usually spear between 8 and 15m occasionally I will go deeper but there isn't as many fish when you go deeper.
What I have speared are a few red mullet lovely eating but hard to shoot!
regarding the sunfish, this time of the year there are plenty of triggers around especially amongst weed. they do look similar to sunfish but have a tail that is crescent shaped.

spearfishing

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