Using explosives to catch fish harms coral reefs, tourism in Indonesia

• Blast or dynamite fishing creates a loss of sustainable fishery income, coastal protection, and tourism that is more than 50 times higher than the short-term benefits from the fish caught.
• This extreme form of overfishing destroys not only the fish and invertebrate stocks, but the coral reefs themselves.
• In the latest issue of Conservation Biology, researchers report on the effectiveness of different low-cost methods for coral reef rehabilitation in Komodo National Park, Indonesia.
• Most transplantation and coral rehabilitation techniques are too costly and are inappropriate for the shifting rubble fields created by blast fishing in high current areas.
• The researchers found that, "assuming there is an adequate larval supply, using rocks for simple, low-budget, large-scale rehabilitation appears to be a viable option for restoring the structural foundation of damaged reefs."
• However, they also found that natural recovery was slow, highlighting the need for preventing blast fishing.
• Despite being outlawed, blast fishing, which Indonesia banned in 1985, is still widespread.
• Population growth, economic pressure, and declining catches often drive fisherman to destroy their resource base for a quick profit.
• "Programs that successfully decrease this destructive fishing practice and restore value to the ecosystem are critical, both economically and biologically," the researchers conclude.
• Conservation Biology is a top-ranked journal in the fields of Ecology and Environmental Science and has been called, "required reading for ecologists throughout the world."
• It is published on behalf of the Society for Conservation Biology.
• Helen Fox is a Marine Conservation Biologist and Senior Program Officer in the Conservation Science Program, World Wildlife Fund.