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Before you spearfish — this comes first

  • Get proper instruction before you spearfish. A recognised freediving or spearfishing course teaches the things that actually kill people in this sport, and reading about them is not the same as being taught them.
  • Dive with a buddy, and dive one up, one down — one diver in the water, one on the surface watching them, every dive. A breath-hold blackout is silent and gives no warning; a watching buddy is the difference between an incident and a fatality.
  • Stay inside your own training and experience. Depth and breath-hold times are personal, they change day to day, and nobody else's numbers apply to you.
  • Understand the conditions before you enter the water: visibility, current, swell, tide, boat traffic and your exit. Conditions decide whether a dive is reasonable far more often than skill does.
  • Use equipment you have been shown how to use, check it before every session, and be visible — a marked float and line are how boat traffic knows you are there.
  • Never extend a dive for a fish. No catch is worth pushing a breath-hold, and the urge to take one more second is exactly what a blackout feels like from the inside — which is to say, like nothing at all.

Taking crustaceans on breath-hold

Explainer · Last reviewed 2026-08-13

Hand-gathering crustaceans on a breath-hold is a different activity from spearfishing that happens to share the equipment: the animal is in a hole, both hands are needed, and the diver's attention is entirely on the rock rather than on the water.

Safety

Entanglement — Can cause serious injury or death

An arm reaching into a crevice or under a ledge can be trapped, and surge moving the diver's body while the arm remains in the hole is the specific mechanism. A trapped limb on a breath-hold is an immediate emergency rather than an inconvenience.

What reduces it: Do not reach into anything you could not withdraw from instantly. Work with the surge rhythm rather than against it, keep the body clear of the structure, and treat any hole that grips as a hole to leave. A buddy on the surface who can see you is the control that makes an incident survivable.

Worse when:

  • Surge against a reef, which moves a diver's body independently of the arm.
  • Deep, narrow or blind holes where the arm goes in beyond the elbow.
  • Alone, where nobody is watching and nobody can assist.

Shallow water blackout and breath-hold loss of consciousness — Can cause serious injury or death

Working an animal loose takes longer than a diver intends, and the urge to finish the job rather than surface is exactly the pressure that produces a hypoxic blackout. A blackout is silent and gives no warning to the diver.

What reduces it: Surface on your own plan rather than on the animal's. Leave the lobster and come back on the next dive — it is not going anywhere and you are on a breath. Dive one up and one down with a competent buddy watching every dive.

Encounters with marine life — Can cause injury needing treatment

Holes and crevices are occupied by other animals, and a hand entering one blind may meet a moray eel, a conger, an urchin or something worse depending on the region. Bites from eels defending a hole are a recognised injury in this activity.

What reduces it: Look before reaching wherever possible, use a light, and know what occupies holes in the region you are diving. Gloves reduce abrasion and puncture but do not make a bite safe.

FishingHQ already holds a record for freediving for European lobster. Sprint 29's audit found that the vertical said nothing about the wider practice, and the wider practice is substantial: spiny lobsters and rock lobsters across the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the Caribbean, southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand; crabs of many kinds; and freshwater crayfish where diving for them is permitted.

THE ACTIVITY IS NOT SPEARFISHING AND THE DIFFERENCE MATTERS. Spearfishing is conducted at a distance from a moving target with one hand on a loaded gun and an eye on the water. Gathering a crustacean is conducted with the diver's head and shoulders in a hole, both hands occupied, the body braced against surge, and no view of anything except rock. Every one of those changes the risk profile, and it changes it in the direction of the hazards a freediver is least equipped to notice.

WHAT THE ANIMAL DOES SHAPES THE WHOLE THING. Spiny and rock lobsters shelter in crevices, caves and under ledges by day and forage at night, wedging themselves in with their legs and spines when threatened. They cannot be pulled straight out — a lobster that has braced is anchored, and forcing it damages the animal and frequently costs it legs or antennae. Crabs likewise retreat into structure and grip. So the practice is one of reaching, feeling, working an animal loose, and knowing when to leave it, which is a slow business on a single breath.

AND THE HAZARDS FOLLOW DIRECTLY. An arm in a hole is an arm that can be trapped, particularly in surge that moves the diver's body while the arm stays put. A diver facing into rock cannot see a boat, a change in conditions, or their buddy. Surge against a reef is far more powerful than it looks from the surface and it arrives on a rhythm that has nothing to do with the diver's breath. And there is genuine hazard in what else lives in holes, which varies entirely by region — moray eels in the Mediterranean and the tropics, conger in the north-east Atlantic, and in some places far worse.

THE REGULATORY POSITION IS AMONG THE MOST VARIABLE THERE IS. Whether crustaceans may be taken at all while diving, whether a device may be used to extract them, minimum sizes, berried and moulting animals, licences, seasons, quantities, and marine protected area rules all differ by jurisdiction and frequently within one. A number of places permit spearfishing for fish and prohibit taking shellfish while diving. None of it is stated here.

Berried, moulting, undersized: the three animals to leave

Crustacean gathering has an advantage almost no other fishing method has — the animal is inspected in the hand, alive and undamaged, before any decision is made — and the whole conservation case for it rests on that advantage actually being used.

BERRIED FEMALES. A female carrying eggs cemented beneath her abdomen has been carrying them, in the case of a European lobster, for the best part of a year, and she is close to releasing larvae. Taking her removes a completed reproductive investment at the last moment. Berried animals are protected across essentially every managed fishery and returning them is not discretionary. Where V-notching schemes operate, a notched female is protected for years rather than one season, and a notch is an instruction rather than a curiosity.

SOFT AND RECENTLY MOULTED ANIMALS. A crustacean that has just moulted is defenceless, hiding, and almost entirely water inside a large new shell. It is poor eating and it has just made the investment that would have made it worth taking later. Returning it is a quality judgement and a conservation one simultaneously, and the two agree.

UNDERSIZED ANIMALS. Minimum sizes exist because an animal below them has not bred. Measuring properly — carapace length, by the local convention, with a gauge rather than by eye — is the difference between a rule observed and a rule assumed.

AND THE HANDLING HAS TO MAKE THE RETURN REAL. An animal wrenched from a hole with legs or antennae torn off is damaged whether or not it goes back. Working it loose gently, deciding in the water rather than on the surface, and returning it to the same shelter rather than dropping it into open water — where it is defenceless — are what make a release worth anything.

THE SPECIES CONCERNED ARE ALSO SLOW. Spiny and rock lobsters are long-lived, slow-growing and frequently site-attached, so a patch of reef supports its own population and does not restock quickly from elsewhere. That is the same arithmetic as the ballan wrasse mark, and it applies here with the same force.

Authoritative guidance

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

  • Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, 1995 (Standards body)Relied on for: Principles of responsible fishing practice, including selectivity, the return of undersized and berried animals, and avoiding damage to habitat.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • Good Fish Guide — Marine Conservation Society (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Stock and method assessment for shellfish and finfish taken recreationally and commercially, and the measures applied to them.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Life history, growth rate, longevity, sex-change pattern and habitat association recorded for the species concerned.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Assessment and population trend, and the life-history traits that determine sensitivity to size-selective removal.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Where to go next

Fish this applies to

What these connections rest on (2)

Practitioner consensus — 2 connections

Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.

  • Caribbean spiny lobster

    A record pointing at the practice or mechanism that explains it, so the explanation lives once rather than being restated on every quarry page.

    • BlueWater Hunting and Freediving — BlueWater Freedivers, Ventura, California, 1995 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: Reef and blue-water breath-hold hunting practice, including quarry behaviour, approach, catch handling and the judgement involved in taking a shot.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of quarry behaviour and regional fishing practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

  • Spiny spider crab

    An explainer that carries the mechanism the subject record depends on.

    • CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold diving and spearfishing practice, training structure and safety expectations as set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • BlueWater Hunting and Freediving — BlueWater Freedivers, Ventura, California, 1995 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: Spearfishing practice: approach, quarry behaviour and the handling of speared fish, from a practitioner tradition distinct from the European one.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Where it matters

What these connections rest on (1)

Authoritative guidance — 1 connection

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

  • Spearfishing

    A membership assertion rather than a topical one: this record teaches the discipline or its equipment, so the discipline's mandatory safety posture applies to it.

    • CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold spearfishing as a defined discipline with its own technical, equipment and safety standards, set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: That the safety requirements of breath-hold diving apply across the discipline rather than to particular equipment or techniques within it.States this directlyPassage read and verified

    The explanation behind a practice, joined to the surface a reader arrives at so that the reasoning is reachable rather than orphaned.

    • DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving safety, the mechanism of hypoxic blackout, and the requirement for direct supervision by a competent buddy on every dive.States this directlyPassage read and verified
    • AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Recognised freediving education and safety standards, including buddy procedure and the one-up-one-down principle.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Related reading

What these connections rest on (1)

Practitioner consensus — 1 connection

Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.

  • Octopus and cuttlefish on breath-hold

    A mechanism edge between a record and the explanation beneath it. The link rests on established practitioner knowledge rather than on experiment, and the support level says so rather than borrowing an authority it does not have.

    • BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Recreational diving safety practice including buddy procedure, surface marking, planning and the decision to abort.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving safety guidance including the buddy system, one-up one-down procedure and recovery from breath-hold incidents.States this directlyPassage read and verified

Safety reading

What these connections rest on (2)

Authoritative guidance — 2 connections

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

  • Breath-hold blackout

    A hazard carried by this subject, joined to the safety topic that explains the underlying mechanism.

    • DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving safety, the mechanism of hypoxic blackout, and the requirement for direct supervision by a competent buddy on every dive.States this directlyPassage read and verified
    • AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Recognised freediving education and safety standards, including buddy procedure and the one-up-one-down principle.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

  • Entanglement while breath-hold diving

    A hazard carried by this subject, joined to the safety topic that explains the underlying mechanism.

    • DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving safety, the mechanism of hypoxic blackout, and the requirement for direct supervision by a competent buddy on every dive.States this directlyPassage read and verified
    • AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Recognised freediving education and safety standards, including buddy procedure and the one-up-one-down principle.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Check the rules before you fish

Fishing laws, bylaws, access rules, seasons, bait restrictions and permitted methods vary by location and can change. Check the current rules from the relevant authority and the water you intend to fish before fishing.

Check with:

  • Current national or regional law for where you are fishing
  • Current local bylaws
  • The relevant fisheries authority
  • The landowner, club or fishery whose water it is
  • Any restrictions specific to the species or the method you intend to use

Sources for this page

  • DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving safety, the mechanism of hypoxic blackout and shallow-water blackout, and the requirement for direct supervision by a competent buddy on every dive.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Recognised freediving education and safety standards, including buddy procedure and the one-up-one-down principle.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving safety guidance, incident analysis, and the specific hazards of entanglement, boat traffic and separation from a surface support.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • NOAA Diving Manual: Diving for Science and Technology — National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Commerce (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diving practice and physiology, including hazards associated with working in surge, in confined spaces and around structure.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.

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