Aboard a vessel known as the Spearboat on a recent Monday afternoon, the squeak of rubber fins on a fiberglass floor mixed with the wheeze of divers taking in big gulps of air. Tanned hands rubbed diluted hair conditioner onto the inside of neoprene suits. The boat’s captain, a steely Russian immigrant named Yuri Krainov, eyes striped by sunglass tan lines, quieted the engine as he steered toward a spot over the artificial Rockaway Reef, in the waters near Breezy Point.

Especially in the summer months, New York’s waters are a magnet for fishermen, who gather on piers or go out on party boats and, with a camaraderie fueled by beer and cigarettes, wait expectantly for a tug on the line. But the men aboard the Spearboat disdain the rod and reel, preferring to prowl 40 feet beneath the water’s surface, using their own lungs and rubber-band-powered spear guns.

Image

“You can say that you feel free — absolutely free — when you dive,” Mr. Krainov, 50, said in a throaty Russian accent. “By nature, by reflexes, your mind becomes clear from the problems.”