Stopping Fish Bombing

Stopping the bombs

Stop Fish Bombing! has collaborated with Californian tech company ShotSpotter to adapt their gunshot location technology to detect fish bombs underwater.

“Fortunately, we now have the technology to detect and locate fish bombs as they happen, and publish this information on tablets and phones for access by everyone,” said Woodman.

The use of this acoustic sensing and location technology, combined with existing and emerging surveillance and monitoring systems, offers the possibility of building an effective global detection system and thus an opportunity to suppress or even eradicate fish bombing within a short time.

This project was registered as a voluntary commitment by the State Government of Sabah as part of a Community of Ocean Action (CoA) formed following the United Nations Oceans Conference in 2017.

“I’m delighted to be involved as part of a team of dedicated scientists, engineers, media professionals, conservationists, politicians and others who have put their efforts into developing solutions,” said Woodman.

Unfortunately, techniques for restoring reefs are still in their infancy, and are not cost-effective alternatives, so prevention is the only reasonable option.

“Fish bombing is the poster child of destructive fishing. Everyone understands that it’s illegal and that it needs to stop: this is the first step on the way to stopping it,” he adds.

Helping communities help themselves

Change is possible through soft measures such as community development, and hard measures such as enforcement.

Getting communities involved in enforcement has proved effective in maximizing reach and minimizing cost. It also provides high-quality data to allow people in marine protected areas affected by blast fishing to objectively assess the issues and ways to solve them.

Failing to address fish bombing ultimately exacerbates poverty, and turns an environmental problem into a security risk, because food supplies dwindle, and a disempowered rural population with expertise in home-made explosives pose a risk to future security.

Piloting the solution

“The 2020 deadline specified by Goal 14 for eradication of destructive fishing is an incentive for us all,” said Woodman.

The project has also led to discussions with the United States government on developing law-enforcement capacity to stop fish bombing in Sabah and the region, by combining spatial data to identify fish bomb locations with surveillance data such as radar positions.

Tamelander added: “Initiatives such as this one in Malaysia that allow us to identify where the blasts are most prevalent, and then work with local communities to prevent blast fishing from occurring in the first place are critical in solving this problem.”