The advantage this gaff has over drop nets is it can land fish on a diagonal line instead of just a vertical one.
This is obviously useful if you fish the cliff marks and your spot isn\'t a sheer drop, but rather steep slope away to the sea. In this case using a drop net wouldn\'t be an option.
As for the device being barbaric, i don\'t think its any worse than a standard gaff that i see getting used all the time in sea angling, or for that matter some other methods used in sea angling such as live baiting, etc., etc.
When i fish cliff marks such as i have described above i use 30-35lb all through. This way fish that are smaller (and therefore not to be kept) can be reeled in and returned, but when you encounter a bigger specimen (I should be so lucky) you can safely land the fish without it falling off (and probaly dying on the cliff or after hitting the waters surface), knock it on the head and take it home for tea.
If it is used in this way, on fish you want to take anyway, and saves lost and possibly wasted fish, then i do not have a problem with the use of a gaff such as this.
Just my honest opinion and i\'m sure many will disagree, but then they don\'t have to use it.