The Great Debate on Dock of Death/Death Pile Pictures
Huge discussion on the phenomena on Social Media of pictures and videos with huge piles of dead fish. Often there are reasons for these piles of fish like providing for your family or community or it could be your source of income, or it might even be the result of a long day or weekend full of hard work spearing with your mates. Whatever the reason, often times on social media the context of a post can so easily be lost, so a proud picture of a long day of hard work trying to feed your family can turn into a what looks like a senseless killing spree. Other times these pictures are taken on purpose to show the sheer volume of fish that they caught. Is this right or wrong? Should pictures of Death Piles be posted? Yes? No? Why or why not?
Bit of a different episode today but join us as we dive into this with Shrek and Simon Trippe as they chat about the so called Death Pile/Dock of Death Phenomenon. Full of interviews with spearos from around the world, this is definitely some food for thought, whichever side you’re on!
We hope you enjoy and make sure that you leave us your thoughts and comments!
Listen in and subscribe on iOS or Android https://link.chtbl.com/Download_This_Episode
Important Times
02:00 Simon Trippe Introduction and Quick Catch-Up
06:00 What is a Death Pile or Dock of Death photo?
09:20 Interviews with people about Death Pile/Dock of Death pics
20:00 Commentary on the interview with Simon Trippe
33:00 Rhys Clay Voicemail | Sunny Coast, Australia Spearo
38:00 Greg Rothaus Voicemail | Californian/Baja Spearo
43:00 Adam Bassir Voicemail | Sydney, Australia Spearo
47:30 Ben Choi Voicemail | Floridian Spearo
56:00 Nicholas Zajicek Voicemail | So Cal Spearo
62:40 Eric Anderson Voicemail | Cen Cal Spearo
68:30 Ryan Rush Voicemail | Floridian Spearo
76:00 Jesse Voicemail | Australian Spearo
86:00 Eric Keener Interview | Fin and Forage Founder | Cal Spearo
96:00 Ed Martin Voicemail | Killshot Spearguns | Floridian Spearo
102:00 Do a course through Australia Spearfishing Academy with Simon Trippe
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Hey Shrek,
Loved this episode; dock of death. I’ve got an opinion I just wanted to share. So, I live in Tampa, maybe that has something to do with my view, maybe not; we have lots fish. It costs on average $300 in fuel and ice, there’s boat maintenance, scuba gear, guns, etc. That’s a lot of cost…. To make it worth even leaving the dock I better get some fish, ya know? And more importantly I don’t need anyone’s approval, some lefty putting heaps of fertilizer on his/her lawn to keep it pretty and green is doing more harm to the fishery than any of us. The things going actual harm go unaddressed while we get scrutinized for photos, it’s laughable. Also sustainable is just the new iPhone, LOL.
Hey Mark! cheers man. Yeah I can see your point; Perception is 100% of peoples reality. Large amounts of fish from multi-day, multi-diver trips could never really be compared to land runoff and other pollutants in our waterways BUT these are not as visual and easy to latch onto. Having identified that though, is the value of sharing these photos on SM worth potential defamation in the public eye? – Shrek
We were proudly showing our catches in the 60s, to concern and scorn of others. We learnt that it is more prudent to honour a fish rather than bignote ourselves as fishers. I’m a 67 year old freediving spearo and I have the respect of everyone that knows me because they know I’m not greedy, and fish for the future.
Modesty is a more wise approach to this.
Cheers for sharing your thoughts Jon. I really like to hear the voice of experience come through on these topics!
Thank you for contacting me wish I could have submitted sorry I missed it. Look if your legal all is good. Having said that I need all your listeners to know. Enviros and regulators are on social media too. They see the Dock of Death photos and they use them against us. I get it. Fishing is life and having memories to be proud of you trip is important. But know this. A picture of an angler happily showing a prize fish sends a much better message about our sport. I have attended hundreds of fishery meetings and I have seen first hand the scores of enviros there with their laptops and their Arsenault of photos. Our photos. Photos of docks of death.
In the US NMFS and the councils use these against us all the time.
Hey Bob, thanks for leaving your thoughts!
Hey mate,
Just wanted to say thank you for tackling the kill pile issue on your podcast. As with all things hunting and fishing, the vocal minority do seem to carry more weight than they should when it comes to shutting things down, or now cancelling things they don’t like or understand. That said, and I know you touched on it, there’s another message I don’t believe was necessarily conveyed for the positives of having a large harvest as a recreational fisherman. Is it bad to go out and harvest a large amount at a time? Not to be confused with taking a photo of said large harvest… It seems the answer for most is yes – this is a bad thing – however this ignores reasons for larger harvests:
1. Efficiency. Many people don’t have the time or luxury to be out multiple times a week or even month where its more of a sport than a food gathering exercise. For the person that only gets out every couple of months, gathering a pile of fish for food should in no way be shamed. If our seafood doesn’t come by our own hand, then it’s from a commercial fisherman, which statistically is almost certainly from somewhere else in the world (because we export most of ours) without the same controls we put in place, or the ethics we impose on ourselves. We’re also fortunate to live in the age of great refrigeration, and in fact many things from the ocean benefit from being frozen for a certain period of time, so bagging and freezing doesn’t need to be frowned upon necessarily.
2. The environment. This might be controversial, but nobody mentioned the resources that go into a single trip, particularly given the kill pile issue is associated with environmental damage. For those that advocate one fish per trip, can they also advocate the amount of fuel, electricity etc consumed for every trip? Let’s take the average scenario of spearing from a boat. Let’s say Brisbane, spearing off Moreton. Fairly common. Before starting out, you want to make sure your boat battery (ies) are charged, so hook them up to the outlet. You then need to drive to the boat ramp – perhaps 30 – 45mins. You have an hour motor to the first spot, perhaps more. Moving around all day. Then everything in reverse on the way back. There are other consumables I’ve not mentioned for the sake of simplicity. The question then is, is it better for the environment to make one trip a month for a relatively large number of fish, or to make 4 trips a week for one fish each time? If you lived next to a headland that you walked to and speared from, perhaps 4 trips for four fish would be better. If you speared offshore each time, perhaps you would reconsider.
My point is, I believe the message that’s conveyed to the public and the message for spearos doesn’t have to be the same. I believe its warranted for you to mention that it’s ok to spear a pile of fish depending on circumstances, and at the same time, to be mindful of how and where you share that same pile. I also do not advocate making people feel ashamed for taking more than one or two fish at a time, because in many ways, it makes far more sense.
Just my 2 cents from a couple of points I felt were missing from the argument.
Cheers,
Andrew