The Australian Underwater Federation (AUF) hosted its annual Australian Open Spearfishing Championship off Eden waters this year with calm seas and good weather conditions producing some great catches and tight competition.
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However this was after earlier concerns on Monday when predicted strong winds stopped the competition.
The competition has been running for 66 years and returns to Eden after 20 years. The event attracted 48 competitors with most states in Australia represented.
Five women took part this year including the current Australian Ladies spearfishing champion, Taylah Martindale from Newcastle, New South Wales.
Ms Martindale was leading the ladies division on Sunday 21 and had placed eight overall bringing in 12 species of fish.
“The seas were nice and flat with clean conditions. There were lots of fish around”, Ms Martindale said.
Competitors are required to spear as many different species as possible from a list of 64 edible fish species compiled by the AUF. Each competitor’s catch is weighed and checked after each day of competition. 100 points are awarded per fish and 10 points are awarded per kilo. If competitors bring in an under weight fish they are awarded a penalty.
“Our code of ethics is safe, selective and sustainable fishing”, National Chairman of the AUF Spearfishing Commission Adrian Wayne said. “Competitions like ours ensure that there are controls in place which includes controls on the amount of each species taken. Competitors can only take one of each species.”
One of the event organisers, Ryan Schulter, said that of the 64 fish species listed usually only 20 species will be caught across competitors.
Some of the species caught included blue and red morwong, magpie perch, flathead, deep body leather jacket and silver trumpeter.
Ladies and Juniors (under 18s) competitor Georgia Poyner from Narooma had been averaging nine species each day of competition.
Ms Poyner had also achieved great distances and depths in the water, fishing 200 metres off Green Cape on the first day of competition and diving to a depth of 20 metres.
Mr Wayne said that the event required a great deal of athleticism from its competitors. On competition days competitors must be in the water at 8am and fish until 2pm. They are required to stay in the water for the first three hours and can only exit via the entry point, which is their boat.
“The competitors have to use their swimming power to progress themselves in the first three hours,” he said.
Some competitors were swimming 12 to 14 kilometres a day as well as diving several metres to fish. Experienced competitors use techniques that involve controlling their breathing and heart rate.
“Some can drop their heart rate down to 40 beats per minute”, Mr Wayne said.
Wednesday 24 was the last day of competition for individual competitors which took place in zone 2 between Boyd Tower and Saltwater Creek.
A fin race and photo fishing competition will be held Thursday 25. The presentation for all categories will take place Saturday 27 at the Eden Yacht Club.
