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Shore diving

Method · Last reviewed 2026-08-10

Entering and leaving the water from land under your own power — the most accessible spearfishing and the one where the entry and exit are the dangerous part.

Safety: slips, trips and falls — can cause serious injury or death. 8 more points apply here.

Never dive alone, dive one up one down, and never extend a dive for a fish.

What each one does, and what reduces it ↓

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

Everything in the spearfishing safety block applies here and is made worse by two things specific to shore diving: the diver is already tired from the swim out, and help is further away than from a boat.

What reduces it: One up, one down on every dive without exception. Rest longer on the surface than you think you need, particularly after the swim out. Treat the swim itself as part of the workload when deciding how long to stay.

Shore diving is spearfishing without a boat: you walk in, swim out, hunt, and swim back. It is how most spearfishers start, because the barrier to entry is a wetsuit and a gun rather than a vessel.

What it changes is where the risk sits. On a boat the dangerous moments are in the water; from shore they are at the edges. Entry and exit over rock in any swell is the single most injury-prone part of the sport, the swim out and back is a real physical load that is paid at the end of a session when you are cold and tired, and a shore diver who gets into difficulty is a long way from anybody.

It also constrains the hunting. You can only reach what you can swim to, which in practice means inshore reef, rock and kelp rather than open water, and it means the decision about how far out to go is a decision about how much energy you are willing to spend getting back.

What it is

Spearfishing conducted from a land entry: the diver walks or climbs into the sea, swims to the ground, hunts it on breath-hold, and swims back to a point they can get out at, carrying everything they brought and everything they took. No vessel is involved at any stage, which means no support, no platform to rest on and no recovery other than the diver's own swimming. It is the form most people learn in, the form most of the world's spearfishing actually takes — two-thirds of Canary spearfishers enter from land, for instance — and the form in which the single most consequential decision is made before getting wet, because the entry has to also work as the exit an hour later when the diver is cold and the sea has changed.

What it is for

To fish inshore reef, rock, kelp and gully ground on the diver's own terms and at almost no cost beyond the kit. The economic argument is real — no boat, no fuel, no launch fee, no crew to assemble — but the decisive one is FLEXIBILITY. A shore diver can look at the sea on the way past, decide in the moment, dive for forty minutes and be home, and go again the next evening. A boat needs a forecast window, a slipway, a trailer and usually somebody else's diary, and those requirements are what stop people diving. On coasts where the shelf drops away close in, shore diving also reaches genuinely deep ground; on gently shelving coasts it does not, and a shore diver there is choosing a smaller piece of water in exchange for being able to fish it whenever they like.

Setting it up

  • Choose the entry and the EXIT before you go in, and check the exit still works at the state of tide you will return at.
  • Load the gun in the water and unload it before you leave the water. Never carry a loaded gun on land.
  • Plan the swim back as part of the session — if getting out will be hard when you are tired, it is too far.
  • Dive with a buddy and agree a plan for what happens if you are separated.
  • Carry a float and line that is visible from a boat, and stay behind it relative to any traffic.

What it catches

3 more

What you fish it with

How it works

The diver assesses entry and exit points before kitting up, swims out on the surface with the gun unloaded, loads in the water at the hunting ground, and works the ground on a series of breath-hold dives with surface recovery between them. The return swim is planned as part of the session rather than as an afterthought, because it happens when the diver is coldest and most tired.

Conditions

Shore diving needs manageable swell at the entry and exit points above everything else — visibility is secondary, because a diver can turn round on poor visibility and cannot easily turn round on a shore break that has built while they were out. Wind against tide raises chop and makes the surface swim harder. Any ground swell forecast is a reason to look at the entry very carefully rather than a reason to bring a shorter gun.

Common mistakes

  • Assessing the entry and forgetting that the exit will be at a different state of tide and a different energy level.
  • Carrying a loaded gun across rocks, which is how people are shot.
  • Swimming out further than the return leg justifies, then paying for it cold.
  • Diving alone because the swim out felt easy.
  • Leaving the float line long and trailing, which is both an entanglement risk and invisible to boats.

Advantages

  • Accessible: no vessel, no skipper, no fuel, no launch.
  • Complete flexibility about timing, which matters because conditions decide everything.
  • Forces knowledge of a small area, which produces better hunting than covering more ground badly.
  • Cheap enough that the equipment budget goes on safety kit rather than on a boat.

Limitations

  • Reach is limited to what you can swim to and back from.
  • Entry and exit in swell is genuinely dangerous and is where shore divers get hurt.
  • No platform to rest on, warm up on, or be recovered onto.
  • Help is far away, which changes the consequence of every other problem.

Terms you will meet

the entry
The specific place a diver gets into the water, chosen for the state of the sea rather than for convenience. It is the first half of a decision whose second half is the exit, and the two are frequently not the same place.
the exit
Where the diver intends to get out, decided before entering and checked for what it will be like an hour later on a different state of tide. Most shore-diving incidents happen here rather than out on the ground, because this is where a tired diver meets moving water and rock.
the surface swim
The distance out to the ground and back, swum on the surface with a snorkel and a float. It is unglamorous, it is most of the physical work of the day, and underestimating it is what leaves divers cold and short of energy at exactly the point they most need both.
washing machine
Water at an entry or exit that is being surged in several directions at once by swell reflecting off rock. It looks survivable from land and is very hard to swim in with a gun and a float, which is why the assessment is made on the sea rather than on the map.

Where people fish it

41 places FishingHQ holds name this among the ways they are fished, across 22 coasts and systems. Being named here describes what sources report, not that the method is permitted — check the local rules before you fish.

14 further coasts and systems are not listed here. Browse every place FishingHQ holds.

Shore diving compared with boat diving

The two formats are the same activity with different escape plans, and they fail in opposite places.

A SHORE DIVE IS BOUNDED BY WHAT YOU CAN SWIM BACK FROM. The ground is whatever lies within swimming distance, which usually means shallower, closer in, more heavily dived and more affected by swell and run-off. Nothing depends on anybody else's boat, engine or attention, and the dive can be abandoned at any point by turning round.

ITS CHARACTERISTIC FAILURE IS THE EXIT. Getting in across surf or rock can be abandoned; getting out cannot, and it is attempted cold, tired and carrying fish into a sea that has usually built since the entry.

A BOAT DIVE REACHES GROUND THAT CANNOT BE REACHED OTHERWISE — offshore reef, deeper water, cleaner water away from run-off — and costs far less swimming for the same result. Its characteristic failure is SEPARATION: a diver carried away by current, with the boat unaware, is in the most serious situation this activity produces. It also puts the diver in traffic, including the traffic of their own boat.

WHAT NEITHER FORMAT CHANGES is the buddy system, one up and one down, recognised training, and the legitimacy of calling the dive off.

Official guidance — why, and the sources (2)

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

  • BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving safety practice including entry and exit, buddy procedure, surface marking and separation from a boat.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 the risks of diving without a competent surface watch.States this directlyPassage read and verified

The same short paddle, over two different seas

The same short paddle, over two different seasTwo side-on profiles of a coast, drawn one above the other at the same horizontal scale, with the shore on the left in both. In the upper panel the seabed leaves the shore and runs almost level for the whole width of the figure before beginning to turn down at the far right; a small craft sits on the surface a short distance from the shore with only a little water beneath it, and the shelf edge is noted as lying beyond the panel. In the lower panel the seabed leaves the shore at the same point and falls away almost at once, continuing down past the bottom of the figure; the same craft sits at the same distance from the shore with a long drop beneath it. The figure carries no depth, distance or gradient, and its conclusion is that the steep profile is what makes deep water reachable without a boat and is also what leaves nothing shallow to be washed onto.THE CRAFT DOES NOT CHANGE. THE WATER UNDER IT DOES.SEEN FROM THE SIDE, LOOKING ALONG THE COAST. THE SHORE IS ON THE LEFT.BOTH PANELS SHOW THE SAME DISTANCE OUT.A BROAD SHELF: THE GROUND GOES OUT BEFORE IT GOES DOWNSHALLOW GROUND, A LONG WAY OUTTHE SHELF EDGEIS OFF THEPAGEAN OCEANIC ISLAND: THE GROUND GOES DOWN FIRSTDEEP WATER, IMMEDIATELYTHE BOTTOM DOES NOT COMEBACK UPTHE SAME GEOMETRY GIVES THE ACCESS AND TAKES AWAY THE RECOVERY.

The same short paddle, over two different seas

Reading the ground · Draft — not yet checked against an external reference

This drawing has not been checked against any reference outside FishingHQ. It is a schematic of what the surrounding text describes, and the text is what carries the detail.

Describe this diagram in words

Two side-on profiles of a coast, drawn one above the other at the same horizontal scale, with the shore on the left in both. In the upper panel the seabed leaves the shore and runs almost level for the whole width of the figure before beginning to turn down at the far right; a small craft sits on the surface a short distance from the shore with only a little water beneath it, and the shelf edge is noted as lying beyond the panel. In the lower panel the seabed leaves the shore at the same point and falls away almost at once, continuing down past the bottom of the figure; the same craft sits at the same distance from the shore with a long drop beneath it. The figure carries no depth, distance or gradient, and its conclusion is that the steep profile is what makes deep water reachable without a boat and is also what leaves nothing shallow to be washed onto.

How this drawing was produced

Drawn from the relationship the two records state rather than from any surveyed transect: a broad continental shelf carries shallow ground far offshore, and an oceanic volcanic island falls away close inshore. The horizontal scale is held identical between the panels because the comparison is the entire content — the craft is at the same distance from the shore in both, and everything the figure says follows from that being the controlled variable. The island bed deliberately leaves the frame at the foot rather than levelling out, because levelling it anywhere would be inventing a depth. No axis, no tick, no figure, in keeping with the standing rule for this diagram type.

Safety

Shallow water blackout and breath-hold loss of consciousness is set out at the top of this page, where it cannot be missed.

Never dive alone, dive one up one down, and never extend a dive for a fish. The full set of breath-hold essentials — training, the buddy system, conditions, equipment and visibility — is on the spearfishing safety page.

Slips, trips and falls — Can cause serious injury or death

Entry and exit over wet, weed-covered rock in swell is the commonest way shore divers are seriously injured. A diver in fins on a moving rock ledge has almost no ability to recover a slip, and the water at the base of the rock is where the swell is breaking.

What reduces it: Choose entries and exits with a gradual profile wherever possible. Watch the mark for a full set cycle before committing. Time the entry to a lull, keep the mask on and the fins on your wrists until you are in the water, and never turn your back on the sea. If the exit looks marginal on the way in, it will be worse on the way out — pick a different one before you swim.

Worse when:

  • Any ground swell, regardless of the local wind
  • A falling tide, which exposes more weed-covered rock
  • The end of a session, when you are cold, tired and carrying fish

Hypothermia — Can cause injury needing treatment

A shore session has no platform to warm up on. Cold accumulates across the whole time in the water, degrades judgement before it produces obvious shivering, and is worst exactly when the difficult exit has to be made.

What reduces it: Suit correctly for the water rather than the air, set a time limit before you go in and keep it, and treat the first shiver as the end of the session rather than a signal to push on.

Precautions that always apply here

  • Never spearfish or freedive alone.
  • Dive one up, one down: one diver down, one on the surface actively watching, every single dive.
  • Never hyperventilate before a breath-hold. It delays the urge to breathe without adding oxygen, which is precisely the mechanism behind shallow water blackout.
  • Check the tide before you go and know your exit route. Being cut off is the commonest way a shore session becomes a rescue.
  • Tell somebody where you are going and when you expect to be back.
  • Carry a charged phone in a waterproof case, or another means of calling for help.

Further safety reading

  • Fishing alone — Diving or fishing alone from shore removes the person who would otherwise raise the alarm, which is the multiplier on every other hazard.
  • Shore entry and exit for divers — Entry and exit are the most dangerous parts of a shore dive.
  • Surface markers and boat traffic — Divers working out from shore cross boat water.
  • Tides and being cut off — A shore diver's exit is chosen at one state of tide and used at another, and the exit that looked straightforward on the way in frequently is not on the way out.

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

Where to go next

Related techniques

Skills behind it

6 more

Compared with

Sources and evidence

  • BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: The buddy protocol and general in-water safety practice that shore diving inherits from breath-hold diving generally.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: The nature of the risk from swell and from entry and exit on coastal rock, and cold water effects.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysPassage read and verified
Why the 33 connections on this page are here, and the sources

What it catches

What experienced anglers do — 9 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 statement about how a species is taken, which is practice convention rather than biology and is labelled as such.

    • BlueWater Hunting and Freediving — BlueWater Freedivers, Ventura, California, 1995 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: Reef and blue-water breath-hold hunting practice, including fish 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 fish behaviour and regional fishing practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

  • Common octopus

    A statement about how a species is taken, which is practice convention rather than biology and is labelled as such.

    • BlueWater Hunting and Freediving — BlueWater Freedivers, Ventura, California, 1995 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: Reef and blue-water breath-hold hunting practice, including fish 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 fish behaviour and regional fishing practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

  • Island grouper

    Groupers are a principal Canary spearfishing target and this species is among them. It is also assessed as Vulnerable, endemic to four archipelagos, low in resilience and site-faithful to particular caves — which is the combination that makes a diver able to take the same population repeatedly. The link exists because the practice does; the rest of the sentence belongs with the species.

    • Canary Islands regional angling guidance sites — Various Canary-based angling and island guidance publishers (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Canary shore angling practice: the techniques and tackle used from rock, mole and beach, and the species each is used for.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • Guías de zonas de pesca en Canarias — Tenerife, Gran Canaria y Lanzarote — GuíaCanarias (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The techniques named for Canarian fishing — rockfishing, jigging, light bottom fishing and squid jigs — and the species attached to them.States this directlyPassage read and verified

  • John Brown

    The page names divers explicitly and separately from the shore anglers, on the same ground and for the same fish.

    • ORI Fish Fact Sheets: the species accounts of the Oceanographic Research Institute — Oceanographic Research Institute, South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR), Durban, 2023 (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Documents which fishery and which technique takes this species.States this directlyPassage read and verified
    • Catch and effort of the shore and skiboat linefisheries along the South African Eastern Cape coast — Brouwer & Buxton, South African Journal of Marine Science 24, for Rhodes University, 2002 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: Independently corroborates the species' recreational capture and range.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified

  • King scallop

    Practice, recorded as practice.

    • 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, fish 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

  • Mediterranean parrotfish

    The Canary material treats vieja as a mainstay of shore-entry spearfishing as well as of rod fishing, on the same shallow rock and for the same reason — it is resident, abundant and holds to structure.

    • Canary Islands regional angling guidance sites — Various Canary-based angling and island guidance publishers (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Canary shore angling practice: the techniques and tackle used from rock, mole and beach, and the species each is used for.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • Guías de zonas de pesca en Canarias — Tenerife, Gran Canaria y Lanzarote — GuíaCanarias (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The techniques named for Canarian shore fishing — rockfishing, jigging, light bottom fishing and squid jigs — and the species attached to them.States this directlyPassage read and verified

  • Red lionfish

    Practice, recorded as practice.

    • 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, fish 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

  • Spiny spider crab

    Practice, recorded as practice.

    • 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, fish 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

  • Yellowmouth barracuda

    Canary spearfishing material names barracuda among the species taken from shore-entry dives over rock and reef, which is the same ground and the same depth band the rod fishery works.

    • Canary Islands regional angling guidance sites — Various Canary-based angling and island guidance publishers (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Canary shore angling practice: the techniques and tackle used from rock, mole and beach, and the species each is used for.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • Guías de zonas de pesca en Canarias — Tenerife, Gran Canaria y Lanzarote — GuíaCanarias (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The techniques named for Canarian fishing — rockfishing, jigging, light bottom fishing and squid jigs — and the species attached to them.States this directlyPassage read and verified

Official guidance — 2 connections

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

  • Striped red mullet

    A scientific institute reporting what its own survey of the fishery recorded: a two-year catch-recording programme across the Canary archipelago counted and weighed every specimen, and this species appears in its published catch table. That is what Canary spearfishers were measured taking, rather than an inference from where the species lives or an assertion about what people do.

    • Spearfishing in the Canary Islands: is the devil as black as it seems to be? — Pablo Martín-Sosa, Instituto Español de Oceanografía — Revista Scientia Insularum, 2019 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: The Canary spearfishing catch table, in which this species appears with a specimen count and a landed weight over the study's two-year recording period.States this directlyPassage read and verified

  • Zebra seabream

    A scientific institute reporting what its own survey of the fishery recorded: a two-year catch-recording programme across the Canary archipelago counted and weighed every specimen, and this species appears in its published catch table. That is what Canary spearfishers were measured taking, rather than an inference from where the species lives or an assertion about what people do.

    • Spearfishing in the Canary Islands: is the devil as black as it seems to be? — Pablo Martín-Sosa, Instituto Español de Oceanografía — Revista Scientia Insularum, 2019 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: The Canary spearfishing catch table, in which this species appears with a specimen count and a landed weight over the study's two-year recording period.States this directlyPassage read and verified

Related techniques

Official guidance — 1 connection

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

  • Spearfishing

    A safety-relevant characterisation of where the risk sits, held to an authoritative standard because it directs what a reader should prepare for.

    • BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Buddy protocol, surface marking and entry and exit planning for in-water activity.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: The nature of the risk from swell and from entry and exit on coastal rock.States this directlyPassage read and verified

What you fish it with

What experienced anglers do — 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.

  • Speargun reels

    A dependency between a format and the rigging that suits it.

    • CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold spearfishing practice, equipment convention and the safety expectations 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 equipment and practice: gun, shaft, tip and rigging choice, and the handling of a shot fish, from a practitioner tradition distinct from the European one.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

  • Suits, masks, fins and cutting tools

    A practitioner equipment claim with a clear mechanical basis.

    • BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Thermal protection requirements for prolonged immersion.Citation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated practitioner guidance on wetsuit selection for shore diving.Citation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Skills behind it

Official guidance — 11 connections

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

  • Boat traffic, and being seen from the surface

    Where the exposure is highest for shore-based divers.

    • BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving safety guidance on surface marking, dive flags and vessel traffic.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

  • Cold hands, feet and cramp

    Where the hazard is most likely to be met.

    • RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Water safety guidance on cold water immersion, its progression and its effect on capability and judgement.States this directlyPassage read and verified

  • Long fins, and what blade stiffness does

    The situation the discipline's material rarely mentions.

    • AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving equipment standards including fin design and efficiency.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

  • Snorkels, gloves, socks and hoods

    Cold is a judgement problem before it is a comfort one.

    • AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving equipment standards including snorkel practice and thermal protection.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

  • Spearfishing equipment, and what each item is for

    Environment decides most of the kit.

    • BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving equipment and safety guidance including exposure protection and surface marking.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

  • Tide and current for divers

    Where the constraint is felt.

    • NOAA Ocean Service tides and water levels educational tutorial — National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: Tidal mechanics including lunar phase, spring and neap ranges, and tidal stream timing.States this directlyPassage read and verified

  • Wetsuits, fins and masks for spearfishing

    Shore diving determines much of what a diver can carry.

    • DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diver safety guidance underlying this connection. Shore diving determines much of what a diver can carry.States this directlyPassage read and verified

  • What spearfishing is, and what it demands

    The commonest entry point into the activity.

    • FAO fishing gear types and fishing technology information — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Classification of spear and harpoon fishing methods and their global distribution.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

  • What to expect on a first dive

    Expectation-setting prevents the pushing-through that causes incidents.

    • DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving incident contributors including overweighting, hyperventilation, solo diving and end-of-session fatigue.States this directlyPassage read and verified

  • When to call a dive off

    The discipline where the abort decision is hardest and most consequential.

    • RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Water safety guidance on assessing conditions and on decision-making before entering the water.States this directlyPassage read and verified

  • Why spearfishing is never a solo activity

    The discipline record is where a reader meets the decision to dive alone.

    • AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving education standards establishing the one-up-one-down buddy structure and surface observation through ascent and recovery.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

What experienced anglers do — 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.

  • Shore diving and boat diving compared

    Why it works, resting on practice reported consistently across independent sources rather than on experiment.

    • 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, entry and exit, surface marking 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 blackout risk.States this directlyPassage read and verified

  • Turbidity and visibility

    A link from a practice, an environment or a geography to the mechanism it rests on. It asserts that the mechanism is load-bearing here rather than merely relevant, which is the test applied throughout this file.

    • Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Long-running published description of how conditions are read in the practice named, by ground type and by region.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation 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 how the condition named governs the practice named, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Backed by research — 1 connection

Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.

  • Why hyperventilation before a dive is dangerous

    Where the folk practice is transmitted.

    • DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: The effect of hyperventilation on carbon dioxide, the urge to breathe and hypoxic blackout risk.States this directlyPassage read and verified

Compared with

Official guidance — 1 connection

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

  • Boat diving

    Both formats and their characteristic hazards are described in the diving and freediving safety guidance cited, and the comparison asserts nothing beyond what those sources set out.

    • 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, entry and exit, surface marking 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 blackout risk.States this directlyPassage read and verified

    A navigational edge between the discipline's two entry modes.

    • DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Breath-hold diving safety practice, including supervision, surface marking and the equipment the discipline depends on.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified

Safety reading

Official guidance — 4 connections

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

  • Fishing alone

    Water-safety guidance underlying this connection.

    • RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Guidance on going out alone near water and telling somebody your plans.States this directlyPassage read and verified

  • Shore entry and exit for divers

    Entry and exit are the most dangerous parts of a shore dive.

    • DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diver safety guidance underlying this connection. Entry and exit are the most dangerous parts of a shore dive.States this directlyPassage read and verified

  • Surface markers and boat traffic

    Divers working out from shore cross boat water.

    • DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diver safety guidance underlying this connection. Divers working out from shore cross boat water.States this directlyPassage read and verified

  • Tides and being cut off

    A safety claim about tidal exit planning, sourced to a water safety authority.

    • RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Tidal cut-off and the changing viability of coastal exits with tide state.States this directlyPassage read and verified
    • BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Dive planning including entry and exit assessment.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.

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