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Bomb fishing is wreaking havoc on Indonesia's coral reefs

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Re: Bomb fishing is wreaking havoc on Indonesia's coral reefs

#51

Post by wraptile »

I'm a scuba diver here in Thailand and you can still see blast fishing damage from decades ago that never fully recovered. It's truly as terrible as the article makes it out to be.

What is interesting is that both Indonesia and Thailand have strong and similar anti blast fishing laws since early 00s that charge 5+ years of prison time.

However, Thailand has been much more successful with taming blast fishing which is practically gone now and the story here is very insightful.

Some of it is due to Thailand's geography and high demand for marine tourism but the biggest push here was EU and US regulation that gave Thailand opportunity to shape up. In 2015 (same year when Thai anti blast laws were codified more strictly) US TIP (trafficking in persons) report down-graded Thailand to tier 3 mostly due to fishing slave workers while at the same time EU's IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing) issued a yellow card. All of which lead to the biggest fishery reform in Thai history which mostly eliminated blast fishing.

Since then Thailand is back to tier 2 of TIP and got lost the yellow card from EU's IUU. Indonesia never got tier 3 of TIP despite many arguing it should have and never got a card from IUU. Stories like this turn me into a globalization believer - I know it's not perfect but the system is kinda working?

Re: Bomb fishing is wreaking havoc on Indonesia's coral reefs

#52

Post by throwaway2037 »

ryandrake wrote: post #43
pingou wrote: post #5

"With a bomb dropped once every 62 minutes, the equivalent of three football fields of reef are destroyed each year, according to Williams." That doesn't sound right.

I love the American measurement units. How many bald eagles of explosives are needed to destroy three football fields worth of reef?

What a low value comment. In this case, a European football (soccer) field/pitch is reasonably close in size to an American football field. If the article had used square feet or acres, your comment might be more relevant. Google tells me that FIFA football pitch size is 105 meters long by 68 meters wide (7140 sq m). American football field size is 110 meters long by 53 meters wide (5830 sq m).

Re: Bomb fishing is wreaking havoc on Indonesia's coral reefs

#53

Post by micromacrofoot »

heyitsmedotjayb wrote: post #10

I bet many of the people here moaning and whinging eat fish themselves!

What's the point of this post? if you're trying to shame people into vegetarianism it's not going to work, and I'm one myself.

There's basically one solution to bomb fishing: make it economically nonviable. You could ban it an punish the people doing it, which is often the immediate action taken and seems like the path being set up here...

but really any money spent on enforcement may be better spent on setting the bomb fishers up with the tools to make a living doing something else — ironically "teach a man to fish"

Re: Bomb fishing is wreaking havoc on Indonesia's coral reefs

#54

Post by throwaway2037 »

wraptile wrote: post #51

I'm a scuba diver here in Thailand and you can still see blast fishing damage from decades ago that never fully recovered. It's truly as terrible as the article makes it out to be. What is interesting is that both Indonesia and Thailand have strong and similar anti blast fishing laws since early 00s that charge 5+ years of prison time. However, Thailand has been much more successful with taming blast fishing which is…

Thanks for sharing your first-hand account of diving in Thailand. I think they should aggressively pursue coral planting. They are several projects in Indonesia that have demonstrated excellent results. I volunteered for a day doing coral planting in Bali, Indonesia. As part of the dive, they take you to different parts of the coral reef as it recovers, showing you how it changes year after year. You can see the change with your own eyes.

Re: Bomb fishing is wreaking havoc on Indonesia's coral reefs

#55

Post by aziaziazi »

kubb wrote: post #35
cute_boi wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Cast a net or eat tempeh. It being convenient doesn’t mean it’s the only way to do it.

+1 for tempeh, incredible tasty and healthy food. Anyone should try it at least once in their lifetime.

Re: Bomb fishing is wreaking havoc on Indonesia's coral reefs

#57

Post by throwaway2037 »

Johnny_Bonk wrote: post #48
kubb wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cast a net or eat tempeh. It being convenient doesn’t mean it’s the only way to do it.

Casting a net is actually one of the less sustainable ways to fish.

I am starting to see this lazy response pattern on HN. Someone makes a reasonable comment, then a responder pops-up like a whack-a-mole to say little more than: "That's not true." or "That's still bad." ... while offering no evidence to their claim, nor any reasonable alternative. I think that it adds so little to the conversation. And specific to the comment, they even used the Holy Grail of annoying Internet argument tendencies: "actually".

Re: Bomb fishing is wreaking havoc on Indonesia's coral reefs

#58

Post by throwaway2037 »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #36
franciscop wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is the opposite, I also expected a lot more damage from a bomb every hour

I'd suspect that the goal isn't to destroy coral reefs and the damage is "accidental." And/or the reefs are already largely fucked, so additional damage is "minimal."

To be clear, coral reefs are essentially collectors/attractors/homes for a huge number of fish species. If you go away from a coral reef (even 50 meters), there is large drop-off in the amount of fish in the water column -- almost none. They are absolutely bomb fishing within coral reefs because there are lots of fish.

Re: Bomb fishing is wreaking havoc on Indonesia's coral reefs

#59

Post by skinfaxi »

Johnny_Bonk wrote: post #48
kubb wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cast a net or eat tempeh. It being convenient doesn’t mean it’s the only way to do it.

Casting a net is actually one of the less sustainable ways to fish.

Compared to throwing bombs in the water?

Re: Bomb fishing is wreaking havoc on Indonesia's coral reefs

#60

Post by lightedman »

Johnny_Bonk wrote: post #48
kubb wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cast a net or eat tempeh. It being convenient doesn’t mean it’s the only way to do it.

Casting a net is actually one of the less sustainable ways to fish.

Which sort of net casting? I grew up with a hand-case 8ft diameter net. I'll guarantee you that's a billion times more sustainable than a trawler.
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