Joe Rogan - How Valentine Thomas Became a Spear Fisher

Um, so you you go to this one destination You you shoot this blackjack. Were you hooked immediately? Yes, really it was not about a spevishing part. Actually. I was still traumatized in the water I still had panics attacks when I was in the water and But I fell in love the second I arrived to shore and we barbecued the fish on the beach And I was like, okay This is this is for me That's the same exact thing that happened to me when I went deer hunting When we were me and my friend Brian Callen and Steve Ronella and Dan Dodie were cooking this deer meat by a fire And I was like, this is the greatest thing ever This is the meat was so fresh because it was like from an animal that was you know Literally killed hours ago and then we're eating it by by the fire. I was like, this is I'm gonna do this forever This is the greatest thing ever Primal right it is it's you feel You feel what I was taught people is that you know when you live in a big city like when I've never experienced that before I've never felt that I was part of the ecosystem whatsoever Right and then all of a sudden I've been putting myself in the water when I'm surrounded by sharks or big fish or different things And I'm like, wow, we're actually not on top of the food chain at all There's a lot of stuff above us that can kill us and it's it's it's it's scary and it's humbling and I think as a person you have to experience that you have to you have to put yourself out of your conference or to understand That you need to respect what's around you You can tell me ten years ago. Oh, you have to eat that fish because it's bad for deer. I mean, I'd be like Yeah, yeah sure buddy, right and then you see in a plane You're like, oh that looks good and it's fine and this but then when you're in the water and you see what's going on And you see that a spot you've been diving for five years all of a sudden is empty Then it makes you understand that, you know, we actually have a very strong impact and it's it's our job to understand and and and Respect it where we're at where the ecosystem was just the one that were the smartest one Sometimes we're the only ones that are consciously aware of our actions and the repercussions. Yes of our actions what when when you're You know first experiencing this your first time in this feeling of Connectedness and freedom and just being a part of the ecosystem Did you imagine that somehow know that this could be your life in your job? Not at all. I've never been hiking. I'm not a big fan of I've never used to be a big fan of the outdoors I'm I Basically don't do anything and then all of a sudden I was living in London and then nice apartment with two dogs and nice car and all of a sudden I was in freaking Africa camping in a bush catching catching my own food and Sharing with villagers that had nothing to eat and I was like, okay. Wow. This is how did that happen? Like how did you go from this one trip? I got invited to film a documentary in food sourcing and I was like, okay I'm gonna try it and I fell in love with it. And the second I went back to London I remember sitting in my desk and be like There's no way I can do that. There's no way I can keep doing that for the rest of my life and Everybody thought I was completely crazy. I sold everything I and I just left I moved away and I have like maybe two suitcases of stuff for the past three years and I Was reading somewhere where they were going to do an interview on you and They decided not to they were gonna feature you in something But they decided not to because of concerns for the depletion of fish in the ocean and I said that is one of the dumbest fucking things I've ever heard because The impact of someone like you what you're doing you for your own personal consumption taking a fish a day or whatever you're getting for your own personal consumption is Negligible in comparison to all these people that are probably writing these articles that are going to buy sushi from commercial fishermen They're they're buying fish from the store that's wrapped in Saran wrap. They're and they're completely out of touch I mean you're in touch you're as in touch as you can get but to think that Somehow or another you're doing something evil because you take photos of it and put it on your Instagram Who was that one you had this amazing photo from a couple days ago with you this? This big fish was so fresh and you guys were eating pieces of it. You had cut a chunk of out of its tail Yes, that was in Thailand. Yeah, okay. It was yeah new per get actually Yeah, we were just went with this friend of ours with his family and we just went out for the day And we went spear fishing with my friend We caught a fish and the guy was super happy he cut it right on the spot and all the kids were just picking on it and it was They were so excited. Yeah, there is right there second They came but the boat arrived back to the island He just went and grabbed the fish and they were trying to take pictures was super cute What what was the argument for not what was the piece that they were trying to put you in where they pulled you out of it? What was that about? Oh that story is it still? And so getting me pretty angry so basically where I was speaking at a woman empowerment conference in New York last May and Then when I was actually in Thailand the woman that is organizing it calls me and she's like, oh look Valentine Like I need to talk to you about something and it's you know, it's a little touchy. I'm like what she's like Well, one of her sponsors said that if you speak at a conference thing on a which walk Through participation and the conference. What was the sponsor? I'm the Wall Street Journal the Wall Street Journal And I'm like, and she said yeah They feel like that's your lifestyle is in a line with ocean preservation And that's and she said something she didn't say it directly But she said and you know me I don't mind that you have pictures in a bathing suit I'm like, what do you mean picture my bathing suit? Sorry, my bird Keeney was not clean Like what do you want from you and at a beach when am I supposed to wear you're also swimming I'm swimming, you know where the bathing suit you mean it's not like you're in your high heels, you know being an insta model You're wearing a bathing suit and there's nothing wrong with that either But you're wearing a bathing suit because you're actually in the water. I exactly I'm not in my konos next to a freaking pool I've been I mean, I'm in Africa on a beach when it's like a hundred and ten degrees What am I supposed to be not on yacht with dambles Arian? Respect So, I mean What did you say to them? What that's? Wall Street Journal that is so crazy. You know, and I get it from their perspective It's a bullshit argument, but from their perspective is just about optics. It's about how it looks That's all it is and if they go there and People love to get outraged about something if they go there and then they go to your Instagram and they find pictures of you With fish like well, this girl's cleaning out the ocean all by herself Oh Yeah, I'm very good Really good. I mean have you ever seen a commercial fishing boat what they do? Yes. Yeah, most people have it Jamie see if you could pull off the the horrific effects of commercial net fishing Because if you find a video we could watch a clip of the video. It's crazy when you see the sheer volume of fish that they pull out of the ocean and when you realize there's countless numbers of these boats and essentially pretty much unregulated and No one's watching them and they're doing it all over the world I mean there's areas where you're not a lot of fish, but overall It's nothing like the way we treat wild mammals or wild birds The way we treat wild mammals, especially in North America is they're very closely monitored their numbers or populations We make sure that unless it's an invasive species like wild pigs like here we go. This is This is awful. They take this Gigantic net they circle all these fish and then when they're pulling them in you get to see the sheer volume See as they get close, but that's that's that's one of the smoother way to commercial fish France is ready big on on trawlers and It's two kilometers wide net that is actually it's it's scraping the bottom. Yeah, really destroying everything I'm destroying the coral this is electric shocks on each side This is actually a fairly mild one and it looks like they're getting these little tiny fish But me you could find it folks if you wanted to go and Google it online But that is the issue too, right that these these nets go all the way to the bottom and they destroy anything that they touch like the whole the bottom of the ocean just gets dragged and All the coral gets destroyed. It's just extremely destructive, but it's what what that's how you get sushi There's so much the fish industry. It's not even necessarily how you get sushi It's how you get sushi so damn cheap, right? But it's it's by the way if we keep doing that there's literally gonna be no fish very very very soon But then how do you explain that and Canada, you know how to spearfish? What? And you have to release most of the fish you brought in rail There's a lot of you have to release most of the fish you rod and reel. Yeah in Canada like it's like the strippers try pass and How many how many can you get a day? Stripe ass like one a day or something one a day spear fishing one a day and And the US site in Canada, you know, even touch anything. Why can't you spearfish in Canada? because the anglers Association in Canada Things that were the evil Basically that you're evil. Why because you can see what you're catching Yeah, so basically we're the cheaters because we can see the fish and I'm like How can you be in your camping chairs on your boat drinking beers all day telling me that I'm the cheater when I'm working my ass Diving it like 60 feet to catch my fish To bring it back and I risk my life. I risk my life drowning. I miss my life with sharks I miss my life and all sorts of things that can happen and you're telling me Drinking your butt wiser in your freaking camping chair that I'm the cheater. I'm sorry, but no Well people always want to think that everybody else is doing it wrong True, you know Vegans want to think people that eat meat are doing it wrong people that eat meat want to think vegans are doing it wrong People fish off a boat want to think that people spearfish are doing it wrong. You think they're probably doing it wrong No, I have nothing again catching your own food as long as you you know respectful with the way you do it Mm-hmm, but there was a big scandal in Florida for the past years with the bread snapper by example and it was about Like recreational recreational fishing you allowed a certain amount of red snapper and then the season closes and when a season closes as An individual my license to fish is gone and then they give it away to the commercial fishermen and I'm like, whoa So basically you're telling me that I'm not allowed to catch that fish for a few months because the population is too bad But then you given my quota to the commercial boats that are catching hundreds a day They're like, yeah No Doesn't make any sense. No, it doesn't but most people are not gonna spearfish Most people are gonna fish so they don't you guys don't have a voice right in terms of like representative voice Comes to creating these laws and establishing these these rules. There's not that many of you Oh, we're in the food chain. We're the we're the plankton. You know, you had a commercial fishing with very big Lobbyists and a lot of money and then you have the anglers is a little bit It's still not super bad because they still have big boats company and equipment It's still like a market which is good enough and then you have a spear fisherman, right? I'm spear fisherman's were Not a lot in the world. I couldn't even tell you how many but we're not we're not a million us for freaking sure It's probably less spear fisherman than there are bow hunters That's highly possible. Yeah, I would imagine because it seems more dangerous and Difficult than bow hunting seems like the next level seems like one of the most difficult things you could do if you want to get your food It's because you're going into an alien environment and you're holding your breath true But actually the human body that's the main argument I get from people. They tell me oh I could never do it But every the human body is actually made to do this. So there's a thing called the mammalian dive reflex and This is very present in aquatic mammals such as like it like dolphins your sails and things like that and the human have it and a very and a way weaker way, but we still have it and So when you're immersed you face on the water your heartbeat is automatically gonna slow down Especially if the water is colder so your body's actually is getting prepared to hold its breath to catch food and That's that's a new DNA. Is it preparing to catch food or is it just preparing to survive to hold your breath? So I'm the water right? I mean, I guess I guess that was a very successive thing to say