From his appearance, you couldn’t tell听听apart from any other older Japanese gentleman in Hawaii. But a long time ago, Sonny was a member of the听in 1956. And since the days he dove for coins off a bridge in Hawaii, he’s been an avid freediver and spearfisherman. Most recently, he wrote听, perhaps the most beautiful book on the subject, the tools, and the heroes of the art that has ever existed.
Photos Gallery:
A collection of images from The Evolution of Freediving and History of Spearfishing in Hawai’i.
Spearfishing was one method of Hawaiian fishing. Those skilled in this art were greatly admired. They were the Lawai’a (fishermen of high esteem) The Laqai’a passed their fishing skills and knowledge on from generation to generation.OUTSIDE: What鈥檚 the biggest fish you鈥檝e ever speared?
TANABE: Ninety-one pounds. @e were diving out at Pua Kua on the Big Island. My brother speared it, and my other friend did another, and that thing was so powerful that when I came on over, I hit it with a spine shot. It hardly penetrated the fish, but it was enough to stop it right there. I鈥檝e speared a lot of 60- and 50-pounders and below. But the Ulua is a fish that is a worthy fish to spear because it has a lot of fight. The only way you could stop them was with a brain or spine shot. If you don鈥檛 get that one small spot, you鈥檝e got a battle.
Traditionally only the royal family were allowed to spear it because it was treated like a warrior. Hawaiians would hunt it with a spear, and they treated it as a form of Hawaiian martial arts, or Lua.听
But I stopped spearing them because of ciguterra poisoning [a sickness caused by neurotoxins accumulated by fish that sit closer to the top of the food chain]. And as I get older, I gain respect for the ocean from a conservation perspective.听
How has the ocean changed since you were a young man?听
My experiences in the ocean 鈥 I saw it when it was the best ever. In my twenties or thirties, I could hold my breath for about 3 minutes. I saw fish in the shallows. You could see red, green, blue, yellows鈥攑ractically all the colors of the rainbows.
Today, on the beach, you wouldn鈥檛 see any of these. It used to look like christmas lights in the ocean. The colors fascinated me. Today, I think people have to practice conservation and take what they need to eat for food, and that’s it. Because already there鈥檚 been a big impact on the reef, and people are going into blue waters to find pelagic fish with a lot of fight.
I鈥檓 amazed at how smart the fish have become. After you shoot a few, they swim sideways, to give you a low profile. It鈥檚 amazing how they adapt to danger. If they feel your rubber of your gun vibrating, they are moving, they鈥檙e not sticking around. They鈥檙e intelligent.听
I don鈥檛 get into the water too often lately. I usually get into the pool to stay in shape. But I can鈥檛 wait to get back, because that’s my best form of exercise. I get a good night鈥檚 sleep from it.听
听is the founder and editor of听,听,听and听听He divides his time between Honolulu and San Francisco.听