SPEARFISHING

PADDLE-FOOTING through blue-green waters off the Bahamas, these submarine spearmen are demonstrating one of the fastest growing of modern sports. Since the end of World War II, the number of spearfishing addicts in the U.S. alone has grown to almost 1,000,000. The sport has spread, from the Mediterranean, where it started, as far south as Latin America and the coral shoals of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Alone, in pairs, or as members of spearfishing clubs (there are close to 100 in the U.S. today), skin divers take goggle-eyed aim at everything with fins. Last year a three-man team of Florida Association champions met a Pacific Coast team for the national championship. The Pacific team won, with 134 Ibs. of fish skewered in four hours.

Some spearmen (also known as bottom scratchers, gogglers, frogmen) satisfy themselves with homemade spears, inexpensive flippers and masks. But there is a growing tendency among expert spearfishermen (such as those shown on the following pages) to mechanize with aqualungs ($115 to $275) for underwater breathing, to use powerful spear guns charged with steel springs or compressed CO2.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.