Jagger8dogs
10-17-2007, 08:28 PM
For those not from Japan you have NO IDEA what the deal is in regards to spearing. It is a giant gray area that those of us who have been spearing for awhile are used to. I am guessing around 75% of us have alway know in the back of our heads that we needed to do such on the sly. The fishing union, like the Japese will interpret such as they wish. Yes, Capt B saw a book of laws and had it translated. Does that mean what he read was right? Have you ever looked at a Japanese history book and read about the great party the Japanese had in Nan-King, China? Probably not. My point is that we have a court of experienced judges to interpret the laws of our constitution. For the set of laws as it relates to spearing, we relied on the fishing union and a department of agriculture like body to present such to us. Just like Captain B said, the laws restricting him from getting a fishing lisence, though still used, were written at a time when they never imagined a foreigner living in Japan and fishing. Also, his email was just crappy timing and had nothing to do with the tourney.
This board and the posting about various exploits haven't helped the situation. While I would assume that the Japanese are somewhat internet savvy, why wasn't it until now that our fishing exploits came to light? Perhaps the tourney and the sudden appearance of 25 American spearfisherman participating raised some concern. I have searched the internet on a regular basis for five years looking for posts about Oki and spearing. It wasn't until around five months ago that I found some actual chatter (...conservation police :moon:...). Now there is an entire section, although Indo-Pacific in title, that is dedicated to Oki. The whole deal with the fishing union is about MONEY. They don't care about protecting the reefs or fishery management. All they care about is making money. If you were in the Fishing Union and you saw the "Unlubricated Reef Raping" post (where many fish were killed and most were given to a Japanese) or read comments about how so-and-so got 3000 Yen a kg for a specific fish (or even "gave" a fish away since such is still undermining the union), then we (U.S. Spearos) are becoming a threat to the fishing union by undermining their efforts. WE all know it isn't on a significant level, but they don't. They assume that we are doing like they would do and trying to sell every fish we can shoot and shooting every fish we see.
I would recommend a refrain from any posts about spearing on Oki to include pictures and such. I would even go so far as to remove past posts about money made and perhaps change screen names to something else (i.e. Aquaman). Just my paranoid, spearfishing loving opinion.
This board and the posting about various exploits haven't helped the situation. While I would assume that the Japanese are somewhat internet savvy, why wasn't it until now that our fishing exploits came to light? Perhaps the tourney and the sudden appearance of 25 American spearfisherman participating raised some concern. I have searched the internet on a regular basis for five years looking for posts about Oki and spearing. It wasn't until around five months ago that I found some actual chatter (...conservation police :moon:...). Now there is an entire section, although Indo-Pacific in title, that is dedicated to Oki. The whole deal with the fishing union is about MONEY. They don't care about protecting the reefs or fishery management. All they care about is making money. If you were in the Fishing Union and you saw the "Unlubricated Reef Raping" post (where many fish were killed and most were given to a Japanese) or read comments about how so-and-so got 3000 Yen a kg for a specific fish (or even "gave" a fish away since such is still undermining the union), then we (U.S. Spearos) are becoming a threat to the fishing union by undermining their efforts. WE all know it isn't on a significant level, but they don't. They assume that we are doing like they would do and trying to sell every fish we can shoot and shooting every fish we see.
I would recommend a refrain from any posts about spearing on Oki to include pictures and such. I would even go so far as to remove past posts about money made and perhaps change screen names to something else (i.e. Aquaman). Just my paranoid, spearfishing loving opinion.