page_title: Spearfishing
section_title: Traditional
hierarchical_section_title: Spearfishing / Traditional
caption_attribution_description: Photographed at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum &amp; Art Gallery (RAMM) on 21-Feb-06. Legend reads: Guyana. Arrow with three prongs carrying three barbed points. For catching fish in rivers.
context_page_description: Spearfishing is a method of fishing that has been used throughout the world for millennia. Early civilizations were familiar with the custom of spearing fish from rivers and streams using sharpened sticks.
  Currently spearfishing makes use of elastic powered spearguns and slings, or compressed gas pneumatic powered spearguns, to strike the hunted fish. Specialised techniques and equipment have been developed for various types of aquatic environments and target fish.
  Spearfishing may be done using free-diving, snorkelling, or scuba diving techniques, but spearfishing while using scuba equipment is illegal in some countries. The use of mechanically powered spearguns is also outlawed in some countries and jurisdictions. Spearfishing is highly selective, normally uses no bait and has no by-catch.
context_section_description: Spear fishing is an ancient method of fishing and may be conducted with an ordinary spear or a specialised variant such as an eel spear or the trident. A small trident-type spear with a long handle is used in the American South and Midwest for gigging bullfrogs with a bright light at night, or for gigging carp and other fish in the shallows.
caption: Head of an arrow used for fishing, from Guyana.
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