Spearfishing champ blazes trails for women divers, sustainability

Mitsuki Hara hides among the undulating kelp forest, 30 feet below the ocean’s surface. In her arms is a 4-foot-6-inch speargun — almost as tall as she is — that she’s training on white sea bass, the elusive “gray ghosts” of California.

Once she presses the button, the real fight starts. The slimy silvery bass fights for its freedom from both its hunter, and the chilling soupfin sharks who are now on the lookout for the bloody fish. Hara hunts with a single, held breath. Hara tightens the window even more. Hara has just 90 seconds to get the job done each time she dives into the murky Pacific.

Hara emerges in one piece with the 73.4-pound beast after Hara takes the fourth free dive. Hara was also able to break the record for the largest behemoth. International Underwater Spearfishing Assn. record catch for white sea bass by women’s speargun by weight. Hara didn’t rest on her laurels when she speared. another world-record-breaking kelp bassJust one month later.

“She’s one of the bright new faces of California spearfishing,” says Lance Lee DavisA spearfishing and freediving instructor who holds the record for spearfishing,

“It’s an incredible accomplishment,” says Addrianna Reitenbach, president of SoCal Dive Babes — an organization for women in spearfishing and freediving. “She caught the white sea bass on a shore dive, which means she had to carry that thing up the cliffs. The world record requirements also don’t allow for anyone to help you.” This means that Hara had to catch the fish in 60-degree water with all her gear — a 10-pound weight belt, snorkel, fins and 2-pound EduSub speargun.

Hara, 26, is a striking example of a spearfisherman. She’s a wispy 5-foot-1 and 105 pounds. Operating a speargun underwater is a challenge because it requires significant upper body strength and back strength. “The gun I use is almost my height,” she explains. “It’s so hard to handle that I have a Power Tower [a fitness apparatus used for building muscle strength using body weight] in my living room to do pull-ups every day.”

Hara is part in a movement of females from the local area Spearas — slang for female spearfishers — dedicating themselves to engaging with the abundance of the Pacific Ocean they live along.

The rise of spearas and sustainable fishing

MitsukiHara spearfishes off the coast of Los Angeles County, diving deep under the kelp.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“There has been a big shift in the demographics of spearing here in L.A.,” says Davis. “I’m teaching many more female environmental and sustainability-driven spearas rather than testosterone-driven male spearfishers.”

The other thing is that the Los Angeles Fathomiers, one of the oldest spearfishing clubs in Southern California, reports eight of its roughly 30 members are women — up from just three in 2016. “We also have more women applying for world-record catches on the [International Underwater Spearfishing Assn.] website than in previous years,” says Sheri Daye, the organization’s former president. Reitenbach explained that the SoCal Dive Babes was founded in 2020. This, along with the pandemic and the need to socially distant activities, has led to an increase in spearas in Southern California. It’s a small but passionate community.

While spearfishing off Los Angeles County’s coast, Mitsuki Hara loaded her spear.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

These spearas are also part of a growing movement around the globe for spearas. locally caught seafood harvested sustainably — without threatening the ecosystem, other wildlife or the stability of the caught species. California is an a top seafood exporter with abundantly delicious marine life, it imports most of its consumed seafood — approximately 70% to 85% of the seafoodAccording to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), most Americans consume imports.

Hara also supports this view, and celebrates the abundance of her own local bounty in March Instagram post. In the image, she’s grinning ear to ear while sitting next to her husband on a boat, their bodies covered in 28 California spiny lobsters. Hara believes Californians should be eating these local lobsters instead of buying Maine lobster from Maine.

Mitsuki Hara shows the California sheephead that she spearfishing caught while spearfishing.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

But it’s not just fishing locally that matters. If you don’t have a sustainable mindset, spearfishing can cause harm. Hara explained, “The spearfishing community has many unspoken rules for protecting the fish population.” For example, spearas guard dive spots where they scored their prize fish, to “avoid attracting too many people to a specific location, possibly resulting in marine resource exhaustion.” Also, Davis says, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife “is one of the most tightly regulated fisheries in the world. Basically, if it’s a legal catch in this state, you can consider it sustainable.”

When practiced mindfully, spearfishing can be an alternative to line-caught fishing as there’s minimal by-catch — accidentally catching and killing other species in fishing nets. Spearfishing is free of bait and leaves no trace of fishing net debris or residual tackle. “I can carefully select and shoot only the fish I want to eat,” explains Hara.

Use every last bit of it, right down to the bones

Hara used every bit of the 73.4-pound white sea bass — “WSB” to spearas — down to its bones. Local artist Hara captured the fish shortly after it was caught. Dwight HwangHer prize fish was memorialized by Hwang, who is well-known among art collectors and restaurateurs. Using the 19th-century Japanese art of gyotaku, Hwang carefully brushed an onyx pine soot and water calligraphy ink onto one side of Hara’s WSB. Next, he delicately pressed the fish onto a piece of washi paper to create a lifelike print to commemorate her catch — honoring the food she took from the ocean. The meat of the fish made for weeks of dinners as well as gifts for friends, and the rest went to her in-laws’ wedding venue and seafood catering restaurant.

Mitsuki Hara spearfishes off the coast of Los Angeles County while hunting for fish.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Hara even repurposed the fish’s skull into taxidermy art. “I follow the tradition of itadakimasu, a Japanese belief with roots in Buddhism, which teaches respect for all living things. This thinking extends beyond mealtime appreciating every part of the animal you’re sacrificing,” she explains. This was a time-consuming project. She had to carefully disassemble the fish skull and clean each piece before using glue guns to reassemble it.

It was this patient, detail-oriented researcher’s mindset that helped Hara catch the WSB. She says, “Before anyone else started diving this past season, I was already in the water, taking detailed notes and records of ecosystem changes, moon tides, temperatures and times of day the white sea bass were swimming. I dived five days per week, often. Yes, I was lucky on the day I caught it, but I spent tens and perhaps hundreds of hours in the water stalking this species.”

Encourage more women to dive

Her mission? To inspire spearas even more to dive into the ocean. “It makes me happy because so many women getting into spearfishing message me frustrated, asking, ‘How you do it? It doesn’t work for me, the gun is too strong, and I can’t load it.’ I have so much to share because I had to figure out unique techniques to compensate for my size.”

Mitsuki Hara adjusts the mask before she sets out to spearfish.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Hara also recommends strength training and finding mentors. “There are so many people who are willing to help,” she says, pointing to organizations and groups like SoCal Dive Babes, OC Spearos, Fathomiers and more on Facebook and Instagram. “I’ve made lifelong friends from this community. Catching food together creates a special bond, and we often end our dives with a catch-and-cook dinner together.”

Matthew Hoang became Hara’s mentor on a catch-and-cook dive. It was a great experience for spearfishing. “Since he took me under his wing, I started seeing a different world underwater, and I suddenly saw more fish, and I even used my muscles and breathed differently,” she says. They had a deep relationship that led to them getting married two years later.

Their wedding took place in the ocean at Avalon, Catalina. The bride wore a Riffe International wedding gown. One of their diving friends got her officiant’s license for the occasion. “When it was time for our kiss, we dove underwater with our 30 guests,” she remembers. “Instead of throwing flowers, we threw fish food.”