The short answer: yes, spearfishing on scuba is illegal in much of the world — banned across the EU, restricted in Hawaii, prohibited in Australia and Mexico — but it remains fully legal in a few big destinations, most notably Florida and California. Whether a tank and a speargun can share the same dive depends entirely on whose water you're floating in. Here's the map, the reasoning behind the bans, and why most of the sport chose breath-hold anyway.
The short answer: banned in much of the world
If you learned to spearfish in Florida, it can be genuinely surprising that packing a tank turns a legal hunt into an offense across most of the planet's popular spearfishing water. The global default is freediving only. Scuba spearfishing survives as a legal option in a shrinking set of jurisdictions, and the trend over the past two decades has moved one way — toward breath-hold. Our pillar on spearfishing laws worldwide puts this in the bigger legal picture; this post drills into the scuba question alone.
Where scuba spearing is illegal: EU, Australia, Hawaii and more
- The European Union — scuba spearfishing is illegal EU-wide, alongside the night ban. From Spain to Greece, the spear is a freediving tool by law.
- United Kingdom — banned in the 2019 rule changes, matching the EU position.
- Australia — recreational spearfishing is breath-hold only, nationwide.
- Hawaii — scuba spearing is restricted, and the fair-chase freediving ethic is near-universal in practice.
- Mexico — permits allow spearfishing, but scuba and electro-mechanical guns are prohibited.
- New Zealand — bans mechanically powered spearguns; the culture is breath-hold.
Where it remains legal: Florida, California and others
The United States mainland is the big exception. Florida allows spearfishing on open-circuit scuba (though not rebreathers, outside lionfish control) — details in our Florida spearfishing laws guide. California explicitly lists both freediving and scuba as legal methods of take. Norway, unusually for Europe, permits scuba except for anadromous species like salmon. A scattering of other jurisdictions worldwide still allow it, but always verify locally — this is exactly the rule that changes with a single regulatory session.
Why regulators ban it: fair chase and fish stocks
Two arguments drive the bans, and they reinforce each other:
- Fair chase. On one breath, the fish's escape tools — depth, time, patience — still work. On a tank, a diver can wait out or chase down almost anything on the reef. Most regulators (and most spearos) concluded that removes the "hunting" from the hunt.
- Fish stocks. Big resident reef fish — groupers especially — are long-lived, slow-growing and site-faithful. Scuba divers systematically emptied famous reefs of them in the mid-20th century; the Mediterranean bans were written in direct response. A breath-hold diver's catch rate is self-limiting in a way a tank diver's is not.
Rebreathers, powerheads and the gear grey zone
The method bans usually travel in a pack. Rebreathers — which hide a diver's bubbles — are banned for spearfishing even in scuba-friendly Florida (lionfish excepted). Powerheads and bangsticks are prohibited in Florida and many other places. Electro-mechanical and explosive-powered guns are banned in Mexico, New Zealand and beyond. The pattern: anything that tilts the balance too far from the fish gets legislated away, one jurisdiction at a time.
The freediving case: why most spearos don't miss scuba
Here's the honest secret of the sport: even where scuba spearing is legal, the overwhelming majority of dedicated spearos freedive by choice. Fish are measurably less spooked by a silent diver than by a bubbling regulator; the fitness and skill curve of breath-hold is its own reward; and the logistics are lighter — fins, mask, gun, go. If the bans push you toward freediving, you're being pushed toward the better version of the sport. Just respect the safety trade: breath-hold has its own killer, and it's covered in every safety post we write.
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