They could lift pretty much all mechanics from hunting and replace harpooning with it. You sail out to a zone, drop some chum, you summon a school of fish, and from the moment you harpoon your first fish, they start panicing moving all over the place, and you get a timer to harpoon as many fish as you can, before the fishing spot disperses(like 5 minutes for the sake of providing an example). The more blood is in the water, the more high value fish appear. Higher value fish move faster, and take more shots. You know which fish have higher value because the size of their shadow under the water is bigger. Shoot enough fish and you got a miniboss you need to harpoon,  that's your ghost whales and such. 

Delete the consumable harpoons, add harpoon guns similar to hunting matchlock, but with a single projectile and faster reload. Adjust harpooned fish prices as necessary.

In all honesty i would want something similar what Vindictus did 10 some odd years ago, but the game's targeting system doesn't enable any skillful play with actual aiming.

I think to adjust the maximum height to be able to start harpoon fishing should be a quick fix

bump

Any easier way to harpoon plz, need those titles ;)

I tried harpooning and seemed fun, but the rewards are unsatisfactory. So much time spent and I just get crappy green fish, same as from afk fishing? Even worse, cause no relics.

Maybe the mastery could have much more value for harpooning, to set it apart from fishing. I mean with 1500 fishing mastery having 4 greens and 1 blue in 5 tries was completely unappealing.

Harpoons should also be upgradable and repairable, either like a matchlock or like a lifeskill tool.

Whale hunting shouldn't be with the use of matchlocks (who even thought it's a good idea) but with the harpoons.

That is a really nice idea! It would be much more enjoyable for sure

at some point, they made us believe that there would be underwater gear with underwater content. i think it was when they released the papu/otter island.

After 5 hours trying to do the leap Professional quest (i like to finsh all quests )get 2 requiem shark and 2 whale sharks i have given up i cannot even get the harpoon to enter the mini game . I have sailed to the correct spot but nothing .2 emails to PA  the last one pointed me here. Imho its a pointless thing in the game it obviusly does not work correct, i have even seen a guide where you have to have 2 people one driving a fishing boat while the Harpoon loses it durability so you enter the mini game and catch the fish and there isnt really anything new reguarding a rework on the skill. So this quest line will forever reamain un completed whitch annoys me .I hate things in game i cannot do 

Isn't there a new eastern carrack variant coming? This carrack variant has a flat deck which I think can be used for harpooning.

I tried to hunt for the whale that only spawns close to Lekrashan. Good luck doing that with a fishing boat or cog! And good luck convincing someone to haul their butt over there and keep guard while you're busy trying to not punch the monitor each time your character glitches through the boat after the harpoon minigame kicks in.

I think that before reworking the harpooning minigame, they first need to sort out the other issues plaguing any boat activity. From you glitching through the deck while standing, fishing, harpooning. To the boat itself glitching and either pretend to be a floating carpet or a submarine, anything but a boat. To, why not the horrible intearaction between boats. Once that's done, they could maybe think on how to help harpooning catch up with the year we're in. I'm sure they will do all of these, then conclude none of them sells more costume and scrap them. 

Having fun, rewarding activities that doesn't encourage conflict competition is not something PA seems to like us to do. Also, looking at how they're revamping stuff (with trading being the latest victim), I fear them reworking anything. Glitches, bugs, dumb cooldowns and detaching the activity completely from the profession it's related to? Hard pass! Let the harpooning rest in peace instead of "revamping" it by shitting all over the activity and playerbase. I mean, what if they'd then introduce a Mysterious Fishing Guild that catches all the fish and makes harpooning unavailable for 7 days?