Each week I get some excellent emails from tree-hugging, vespa driving, soy drinking vegans that somehow find me on the internet and go off. Honestly it is about my favorite part of the week to listen to their uninformed rants and I think you all will enjoy it as well.
Here the latest from D.S. who I hope means well but needs to spend more time not trying to save the dolphins in captivity and instead get out there and actually experience the world instead of listening to professors who’s skin haven’t felt salt water or the glaring sun in the past 20 years.
You as divers are the ones that need to take care of your own environment and preserve it for the future. We all know that and we just have to be man enough to stand up for ourselves without rocking the boat too much.
When was the last time you had someone throw a veggie-burger in your face as you were getting out of the water?
Here is what she wrote:
You seriously have to be the biggest jerk on the planet!! Not sure how I came across your pictures but the way you just grab any living creature under water and spear everything. The way you are holding pieces of coral in your hand and draping yourself across coral not to mention man handling a turtle…you are a disgusting jerk!!!! You have absolutely no respect for the ocean!!
Try educating your self a little bit and stop acting like a mindless neanderthal….JERK!!!!!
To which I replied:
Wow. You really are quite uninformed aren’t you.
I appreciate you taking the time to berate me sight unseen and without remorse. Spearfishing is the most sustainable and ecologically friendly of any form of fishing and has less impact on the environment than even Aquaculture.
We understand the ocean and enjoy every minute we are within it and do more to help preserve the resource than eccentrics waving banners and screaming “foul play” every time they see someone touch a living creature.
How many turtles have you unwrapped fishing line from?
How many pieces of plastic have you removed from sea birds?
How many bottles and cans have you removed from the rivers near your home in the past 34 years?
How many days have you spent cleaning the ocean floor and the beach?
How many dozens of countries have you traveled to on your own dime and taught ecology and sustainability to the local population while being a “visitor” and not a Touron.
I take what I eat and if we have to much we give to the poor, the homeless, the locals in a given country or to our friends. Food goes a long way in rough times and we are blessed with a sport that provides not only quality family time together but also healthy, organic, sustenance.
One single rock on the ocean floor the size of your hand, even in 20 feet of water with only 6 ft seas on the surface, will do more damage rolling over the coral reef than all divers throughout the world in a year.
I am currently working with National Geographic to create the largest Marine preserve in the world covering an area larger then the continental US. Spearfisherman are responsible for more Marine Preserves due to our efforts to create sustainable ecosystems throughout the world, than any other group that I know of.
Check the Pacific Islands off the coast of Mexico,
Rodney Fox work with Great White Sharks
and any country in the Caribbean
and you will find that it is we the people who live and breath the ocean that have done the most to protect it.
If you wish to continue your rant without doing YOUR RESEARCH then please do, but don’t make yourself look like an idiot in the process.
Best of luck on your quest to defriend the world. Cameron Kirkconnell
NOTE: ”Touron” is a saying that we coined that is a hybrid of Tourist and Moron who more often then not are one and the same.
38 Responses to “Hate mail of the week:”
very nice response!
Right on Brother!
I think she is right. Going into the water and just grabbing anything you want. JERK!
Good Job!!!
Hahaha. Brilliant.
Nice response-
I don’t think she has a clue as to what you do to encourage sustainable fishing. Moreover, she’s incapable of civil dialogue.
Continue your quest.
Good work on educating yet another emotionally fuelled, uninformed, extreme green hypocrite. They are so disconnected with reality and the only way to change their attitude is with an educated and scientifically proven response like yours.
It reminded me of this outrageous article written by another “Green Terrorist” using lies and other false information to cloud people’s minds to suit their own extreme agenda.
Here is the article:
http://twitpic.com/2vjsna
And here is the truth:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw-act/green-groups-casting-net-of-lies-about-the-blue-groper/story-e6freuzi-1225938404120
Ahahahahah! That was Great. I so wish I could have been there to see her face as she read that reply. You didn’t even mention how many fish you don’t shoot.
Cam, very elegant way of insulting a moron!!
Keep a copy of the email you sent, for the rest of idiots you have coming your way.
that was awesome
Cam, I respect and admire you even more. We could ALL learn from your example and apply it to life in general.
Kudos mate, and good diving!
Well written, dude.
WELL IT LOOKS LIKE 12 PEOPLE HERE SPEARFISH AND DICK LONG DOESNT HAVE HIS NAME BETWEEN HIS LEGS TO DO IT
This should be a regular feature on spearblog! You handled that well. Only thing that kinda bugs me is that whoever wrote that to you was probably 12 and only knows what she learned from “animal planet for kids”.
Excellent rebuttal. Spearfishing is definitely an art that requires knowledge, love and care for the ocean. And you’ve always clearly demonstrated that through this blog.
Way to go cam, its gunna be hard for her to have a come back to that one!
Cam,
You are now officially my hero!
Full-on respect for you buddy!
There is one thing I should add: Although Aquaculture is bad, everyone on this planet (even us, spearos) is subtlely supporting it. It will never stop.
Nevertheless, the efforts of spearos should be understood that we are doing our best to ensure a sustainable way of life.
Not everyone will understand from our perspective. Not everyone will have the luxury , or opportunity to spearfish like us. Thus, buying fish from markets.
A good way around all these haters and misunderstanding will education, and mutual respect to everyone. Have you thought of doing a video which explains the challenges involved in spearing; be it the sport, or the explanation bit.
Anyway, I like your website, keep it up!
Cheers!
Khee
Thanks for sharing the email and your response, Cameron. Your points are excellent, I hope the information serves to broaden her awareness and allows some perspective outside the blinders.
Well done Cam, it is so sad that some people are so narrow minded and know absalutly nothing about us and our beutifull sport!! But yet they still judge, i hope she stops and asks herself what has she actualy done to save our ocean lately.
We all have to deal with these mis-informed people on a daily bassis, each & every diver is an ambssador for our sport, education is our biggest weapon, yet there are many people out there breeding there hate towards us with no bassis of information & unless they get out & look the real world in the face they are not worthy of the air they breath!
Doesn’t she realize we are only bait for the guys fishing in the boat!!!
God, that was awesome man.
=]
I haven’t been able to get on my Facebook to copy and paste the reply from D.S. but it went something like this:
“You are the stupid one! Don’t you know that that Tuna you killed is an endangered species and people like you have hunted them until they are all gone! I do a lot for the environment and yes I do pick up cans on the beach…” D.S.
To which I replied using as small of words as possible something to the effect that yes I am aware that actually this is a Dogtooth tuna which has no commercial value and is unviable as a target species because of its habits and distribution around the world.
It really is amazing what some people will come up with to try and get on your case about. I have no respect for these hypocrites.
Cameron
WOW…she called a Dogtooth tuna endangered! I guess she thinks little tuny are endangered too, they’re tuna. Jeeze Cam, didn’t you know this, how could you… Some people are just idiots, keep the posts and good stories coming.
‘Man-handled’ a turtle…haha. Perhaps her anger is fuelled by jealousy??..Might have been a while since she was ‘man-handled’ herself…
“You can fix ignorance, stupid is FOREVER!!!”
THAT WAS A GREAT REPLY TO HER, DID YOU GET A RESPONSE TO THAT?
I need to get back on my FB messages to see and can’t right now. I doubt it. I think this had her taken down a notch.
The people on Youtube however are incredible! Go check out some of the comments on my spearfishing videos there (cameronkirkconnell) and see what they write. Unbelievable
Cam:
As always, thank you for being one of spearfishing’s foremost public ambassadors. I think we all encounter this sort of ignorance to some degree, but as accessible as your posts, photos, and videos are, you’re inevitably going to be a target.
When the vegans jump on me about spearfishing, I educate them about the differences between line fishing and spearing and how a grouper pulled up from 50 feet on line is likely to die regardless of size or release, whereas only a legal grouper will ever end up on the end of my spearshaft. Fishing blindly, long-lining, or trawl-netting versus ‘intentional grocery shopping’ as I call it, is vastly different, as we’re all aware. We don’t have by-catch and we don’t take more than we need.
Even when we tournament fish, we don’t shoot fish we don’t plan to eat. I know I’m preaching to the choir, just thought I’d toss some additional kudos your way for not only having the guts to put yourself out there and be targeted by the uninformed, but also for again, being one of our best ambassadors. I look forward to the privilege of diving with you in the future.
All the best,
–Branon in South Florida
Branon thanks for the props and for understanding and educating. Like you said, spearfishing is the most ecologically selective method of taking fish and as spearfisherman we need to educate the rest of the world to solidify our position and preserve our sport for the future. Through the efforts of the FRA (Fishing Rights Alliance) and other pro-spearfishing activist groups we can make a difference. We all need to do our part to ward off these Whale Wars types before they get too far in their quest to Granola the entire world.
Cameron
Great, lucid and well-written reply. Well said.
A point I like to make to this type of person is that even if they are vegan if they eat any commercially grwon crop they are contributing to destroying animals as commercial farming and monoculture do far more damage to the ecology than the few fish that I (and all other spearos)spear. Good reply Cam!
well written cam ! i’m totally agree with you ! more people like you in this world could be a good thing !
Hello Cameron, I am a spearfisherman and I agree with everything you said, but I think it is completely unnecessary to start calling these people (who ARE uninformed and some VERY uninformed) that are (most of them I would assume) genuinely concerned about nature and the ocean we all love, with all these “tree-hugger”, “vespa driving”, “soy drinking vegans” remarks, I mean do you really think it is a bad thing to help the environment in those ways? how is “vespa driving” or being a vegan a bad thing? And for you to say that they should stop trying to save dolphins in captivity, what the hell? There are many problems in this world and not everyone can help fix them all, what the hell is wrong with someone trying to help suffering dolphins? That’s like someone telling you: “Hey, stop picking up plastic bags and fishing line from the ocean and help Global Warming instead”.
I agree that spearfishermen do soooo much for the ocean, and I agree with everything you said, I just think the insults are unnecessary and actually pretty douchey.
Eliot.
Yeah the Eliot told YOU…
Ya Douch…
Go the vegans!
This is the most entertaining website you could ever read, while getting paid to work.
You’d hero too Cam, if you didn’t kill all those lovely little fishies.
Oooppps shit! Spelling mistake.
That should read
You’d be my hero too, Cam, if you didn’t kill all those lovely little fishes, or have that Johnny Bravo hair doo.
Vegan is an old Indian word that means lousy hunter