Blue water hunting
Blue water hunting is an ocean sport practiced by experienced spearfishers and has become increasingly popular in the last few years. They target the large fish found in the deep oceans like the yellow fin tuna, bluefin tuna, marlin, snapper, sailfish, giant trevally and wahoo. This sport is popular off the coast of South Africa and the Pacific.
In the blue water hunting expeditions, the divers are dropped by the boats and may drift for hours before they sight a fish. The fish is then targeted using wooden multi band guns. Often the fish is larger than the diver and a second gun may need to be fired to completely subdue the fish. Not all blue water hunters will kill the fish, some only take photos of the fish they spot at close range.
In addition to the risk of spending hours in water, the blue water hunter may face a threat to his life from other marine species. The most common of these are sharks which may mistake divers for food and stingrays which have a lethal sting.