Spear fishing

Spearfishing is now banned at some ocean pools. At the Palm Beach Pool, a child once had to be rushed to hospital for treatment of injuries sustained when she ran into a man carrying a speargun.

Fishing with spears was a traditional Aboriginal practice along the NSW coast long before good-quality masks, snorkels,  fins and spearguns  made spearfishing a fashionable recreation and a recognised sport.

The pioneer Australian spearfishermen in the 1930s made their own equipment, creating masks from cut-out sections of motor-car tyre inner tubes and glass. Fins were not available and spearfishermen or 'white water men' stalked their prey in waist-deep water close to shore.

After World War II when scuba equipment was readily available, spearfishing with masks and flippers grew in popularity and quickly became a competitive sport at national and international levels.

In the early 1960s, a few NSW spearfishermen hunted sharks that could be found offshore in gutters. This was an exciting activity demanding strength, alertness, endurance and courage at least until 12-gauge shotgun head and other power heads became available and large schools of grey nurse sharks, wobbegongs and carpet sharks were destroyed.

The 'gung ho' shark-killing films of Ron Taylor and Ben Cropp left most of their audience convinced that these spearfishermen were heroes performing a community service by killing 'man-eating' grey nurse sharks, whalers and white pointers. The spearfishermen themselves were revising their opinions of sharks and becoming more interested in conserving than killing sharks. Several well-known spearfishers became more committed to  underwater photography than spearfishing and shark-hunting. Both Ron Taylor and Ben Cropp have campaigned for the conservation of sharks.

Spearing of endangered shark species or other iconic fish beloved by snorkellers and swimmers now provokes community outcries and questions in the NSW parliament. In January 2002, the Premier of NSW offered a $10,000 reward for information about the spearing of 'Bluey the groper' a well-known and much-loved part of the swimmers' and snorkellers' world  at Clovelly Bay. From March 2002, spearfishing and the taking of groper by any method of fishing was prohibited from the northern end of Clovelly to the southern end of Gordon Bay in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs.

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