Peace Beneath The Waves

 From the mid forties much of our time was spent pursuing all aspects of the new and exciting sport of spearfishing. There were so many unknown factors at that time and all sharks were considered to be maneaters.

Two of our major projects of this era was the development of the "Aquamatic" compressed air speargun that went through a series of changes to finally accommodate the fantasies of the big fish and shark hunters. Some of the later sophisticated models activated by a 2000 Ibs/square inch driven piston nicknamed, "Horrible", was like releasing a 7/16" diameter torpedo. The second project was to counteract the obvious advantage the perceived marine enemy had over the very real problem of mere mortals being forced to match wits without breathing air.

This prompted our attention to devising some method of providing a level playing field. Advice on the invention of the world's first aqua-lung by Cousteau Gagnan in 1943 stimulated our efforts to reproduce this apparent answer to equality in all marine predators. We did consider the use of closed circuit rebreathers which were suggested as having the advantage of not producing the thunder of fish-frightening bubbles exploding around us. Being involved in a near fatality was sufficient for us to consider the rebreather as introducing a further element of
danger to the sport. Our first prototype aqua-lung which involved the use of the first stage endurance type oxy regulator incorporated into a demand valve of entirely our own design was tested around early 1950 and proved most successful for catching lobsters in the confined area of a cave. Through a series of experimental compressors we were able to provide 1000 Ibs/square rich of air to the cylinders which was expended in a small fraction of the time taken to pump. All round it was not the success we anticipated for the very vigorous sport of spearfishing.

Answers in the shape of bigger and safer cylinders and a water lubricated compressor producing pressures of pure air beyond 2000 Ibs/square inch were somewhat of a novelty for a while but it eventually became apparent that it was more of an unnecessary cumbersome accessory that's only advantage for spearfishing was to reach greater depths beyond freediving. Then we began to realise that the challenge of freediving, to spearfish no longer existed when utilising breathing equipment and it was only our inexperience and lack of ability that had earlier led us to believe we needed that level playing field.

Suddenly ethics crept into the agenda and the morality of spearing with SCUBA was equated to shooting pheasants on the ground or ducks sitting on a pond. It was
  obvious that many of the new breed of SCUBA divers had similar views to our own in those early days. But it was encouraging that many saw SCUBA as a means for exploration underwater photography and the joys of sharing the underwater world.

It was disappointing that when legislation was proposed to prohibit spearfishing tremendous opposition which substantiated the view that this practice and such views sufficient to create a division between freedivers and SCUBA interests. I've little doubt that today most SCUBA divers would support the legislation in the present climate of preserving fish stocks with the deep-water sanctuary concept. I doubt that few would oppose the regulation on the basis of a restriction to their diving activities. The deep rooted rifts between spearfishermen and SCUBA is regrettable and becomes very apparent when Commercial Dive Schools now utilise the more prolific traditional spearfishing locations for their tourist operations. This manifests itself no more than SouthWest Rocks where every effort has been made to exclude spearfishermen, which is seen as profit motivated, rather than any concern for the environment.

Nobody can deny that in New South Wales all, legislation pertaining to the protection of species, excluding the White Pointer Shark has emanated from the efforts of the spearfishing fraternity.