Bowfishing Investigation: Thousands of Fish Impaled and Tortured for 'Fun'

Bowfishing Undercover Investigation

Investigator's Log from Iowa

On Saturday, May 14, 2005, I attended the Fifth Annual Bowfishing Association of America sanctioned "Schwackmaster Classic" at Lake Odessa, outside of Wapello, Iowa. I met the bowfishers at 7 a.m. at the dock. There were 13 boats, and most of the boats had two fishers, though there were also two boats with teams of three.

The first two people I talked with were excited that I had come to film bowfishing, and they were pleased when I asked to interview them. They were young men, in their early 20s, and they talked about how they got involved in bowfishing. They told me that their first bowfishing trip together was memorable because they had shot a fish through the mouth and the arrow had gone all the way through her body

Our conversation ended when everyone was called together so that we could go over the rules of the tournament. We were told that there was a wildlife refuge nearby and that although we would not be disqualified from the tournament if we fished there, we could be fined or get a ticket if we got caught.

At around 9 a.m., we began to load up the boat to head out. I was riding with a man and his 13-year-old son. The son had been bowfishing since he was 9, and the only real reason he gave for liking it was that it allowed him to spend time with his dad. He told me about a trip during which he and his dad had shot more than 200 fish, and he said that this had been captured on DVD because his dad makes bowfishing videos.

As we crept through the water, I asked about the Bowfishing Association of Iowa and its mission. It is a nonprofit organization that was formed to protect bowfishing-I asked him what they were protecting the sport from, but he ignored the question and instead continued to insist that they were doing the environment a favor by hurting and killing the "trash" fish.

This tournament was more relaxed than the one I went to in Texas, but it was also much bloodier. We went out to a spot in the lake where the fish had gone to mate, and almost all the fish they shot were carp who were full of eggs. As the arrows penetrated the fish, their stomachs would explode, and eggs, blood, and organs would fall out of the wound. The boat was soon covered in blood, innards, and fish eggs.

I focused my camera on the boy and got good footage of him shooting the animals and ripping arrows from their bodies as they struggled to escape. I also filmed the son running an arrow back through a fish after the arrow and the line had gone all the way through her body. At first the son waited for his dad to come help him, but when that didn't happen he began to try to get the arrow out himself. Blood and eggs poured from the animal's belly as she fought to escape and the boy fought to hold her down. During this struggle, the fishing line became knotted around the fish and the arrow, and it took several minutes for him to free the line and arrow from her body.

We finally began heading back to the dock at around 5:30 that evening. Father and son had killed more than 40 fish, and they claimed that it was a bad day for bowfishing.

When I got back to the dock, I noticed a boat with more than 100 fish in a barrel, and then I saw two toddlers playing inside the barrel with the dead and dying fish. Their family and the other folks who were hanging around were encouraging them.

As the day wrapped up, my guide came over, and I told him that I was sure we would hear from each other in the future.

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