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Alchemy spearo Garrett Moss is no stranger to spearfishing, far from it actually. A finely-tuned ocean hunting machine, professional waterman, and FII freediving instructor, he spends his time spearfishing the shark-infested waters of Hawaii and considers Ono as some of his most prized trophies. Here's a day in his life, harvesting two of the most elusive fish in the ocean.
"I've made an effort to practice sustainability since the beginning. The more time I've spent immersed, the more wisdom, knowledge, and understanding I gain. Set aside pride and greed, and when the gifts are given I take only what I need. “The exalted shall be humbled and the humbled, exalted” - I prefer to lead by example and let my actions speak the words".
"We're out here in a remote part of Maui, hunting Ono, in a full moon phase. Loading my Kap Cubera 150, laser-sharp accuracy cannon of a gun, and Ono hunting tool, that I love and I'm very grateful for. Bringing my flashers into the water, my buzz bomb sinks down, we start letting it rain some chum, you can see the plankton that's bloomed with the full moon, and the Ono show up in all their glory.
I drop down, try not to pay any attention to the fish, maybe to get them inquisitive with me. As I'm falling, I spiral down, barrel roll onto the Ono, bring them in close enough within range, and let a shaft fly, right mid-body into this Ono. Didn't really hurt the fish too much when I shot it and the fish casually swam around for a little bit, even passing by my flashers. You can see the shaft dragging as the slip tip’s engaged on the other side of the fish - all lit up very beautifully. I clip off my gun to the reel on my belt and let this Ono take off, as I'm following the fish, kicking as hard as I can and gaining ground back.
Pulling the Ono up, I see my mid-body shot, grab the fish by its tail to immobilize it, take the knife through the gill membrane and right into the head. Putting suffering to a minimum and just super-stoked on landing this big beautiful Ono. Awesome fish, one of my favorite fish in the world to hunt, they are elusive and they are almost magical - the way they show up and disappear, the way they glide through the water, so effortlessly.
We get everything situated back out to the water and sure enough, here comes some more, give it a couple of power kicks to this one, and let the shaft fly. This Ono I hit in the back third of the fish, where there's a little more density for my gear to hold on to, so it doesn't rip through the soft flesh of the fish. You can see me swimming in the direction that the fish is swimming, as it's after a shot to prevent any distancing from the fish. Hook up to the belt reel, this one still got a lot of life left into it, playing with the drag on my belt reel and I let my gun go.
Finally pulling up the Ono from the depths, and I like to dive down when I retrieve such a fish, this is a lot of times where an error occurs and fish are lost. So I make an effort to go down, grab the tail immobilizing the fish, keeping it upside down and then I slide my other hand up into its gills, so I can't swim or bite myself with these razor-sharp teeth. You can see the highly oxygenated bright red blood, I slide the knife to the gill membrane and into the head of the fish, killing the fish as fast as possible. Taking the blood out of the meat so it doesn't overheat, keeps the fish cool, keeps the meat perfect. Swimming back to the boat with another big Ono in my hands".