Combating Blast Fishing in Malaysia

Protecting healthy reefs and restoring damaged ones in the Coral Triangle

We are freediving near a gorgeous coral reef along the coast of Kalapuan Island, a small Malaysian island few have ever heard of. Located in the Coral Triangle, which is the global center of marine biodiversity, one would expect to find countless types of corals, fish, and other marine life here. A few meters below the surface, however, we find a stark contrast — an incredibly colorful and vibrant seascape right next to a scene of complete underwater devastation.

Photo of Reef in BorneoPhoto by Christian HollandShark Stewards and TRACC are working to establish a locally managed marine protected area encompassing the Kalapuan reef.

Dr. Steve Oakley, president of the nonprofit Tropical Research and Conservation Centre, surfaces in his yellow football jersey gripping a handful of living but broken coral fragments.

“We will keep these in the fish box and we will bring them back and plant them,” he says, as he places the small branching corals into a box floating at the surface.

“See this sheared rock?” Oakley asks as he hands me a large chunk of white coral. Along the top edge, the cups from the coral polyps indicate the edge of the once-living coral. “This kind of damage only comes from blasting.”

Oakley is referring to the practice of blast fishing, whereby fishermen toss explosives into the water, often a bottle of fertilizer and kerosene with a lit fuse. The resulting blast produces a large crater in the reef, and kills or stuns fish within a 15 to 25 meter radius. The fish float to the surface, where they are easily collected for market. In areas that have been heavily blasted, the practice leaves behind a wasteland of flattened coral rubble that can take decades or even centuries to recover. It is an illegal but rampant form of fishing here in the Coral Triangle, where locals often live hand-to-mouth and rely on the sea to survive.

I’m here with Shark Stewards, an Earth Island Institute project working to protect sharks and critical marine habitat. We are diving and filming with Oakley in eastern Malaysia for an online series called Borneo From Below, which showcases Borneo’s diverse marine environment. The shallow reef where we are diving projects from a long reef flat nearly a kilometer from Kalapuan Island. A small community of Sama-Bajou people, an Indigenous group that has traditionally lived a sea-bound lifestyle, resides on the island alongside a resort.

Oakley dives back into the clear Malaysian waters, and we follow. Beneath us is a landscape of complex and colorful corals. Branching acroporid corals provide refuge for neon blue damselfish. Large plate-like corals extend two meters in diameter and resemble swirling brown mushrooms, while other varieties look like large orange boulders. Soft corals and anemones wave in the gentle current. The bottom is covered with over 100 species of corals painted in purples and neon greens and blues, and dozens of species of small fish flit within the coral branches.

The reef is complex and beautiful, until we find ourselves along the edge of an open area of broken coral fragments. Here, coral is jumbled in ragged heaps around a large area of sand and rubble. A lone blue sea star adorns the crumpled reef. This is the devastation left by blast fishing, also known as dynamite fishing or fish bombing.

Ironically, Pom Pom Island is a popular diving destination, where two resorts offer diving lessons to visitors. Familiar only with the reef off of Pom Pom Island, these new divers have no idea what a healthy reef looks like as they snap pictures to share with their friends. Unfortunately, these photos do not come close to capturing what a healthy reef should look like, documenting instead the ghost of a formerly robust seascape.

TRACC is attempting to restore the devastated reef along Pom Pom Island by creating artificial reef structures with living coral attached. The ultimate goal is for the reef to have enough fish to support a healthy reef shark population. With Oakley, we are collecting living coral fragments from the healthy Kalapuan reef for this project. The fragments we collect will be placed in concrete forms to regrow the coral, and artificial structures will be built using glass and plastic bottles, crates, and tables, among other materials. So far, TRACCC has planted more than 20,000 corals, and fish life on the restored reefs has increased by more than 500 percent.

Although artificial reef structures provide important refuge for fish, and efforts like TRACC’s to restore corals are helping, these artificial reefs will never resemble their natural counterparts.

Because of that, Shark Stewards is working with Oakley to protect the healthy reef along Kalapuan where we have been diving. Currently, we are working with local leaders to establish a traditional, locally managed marine protected area encompassing the reef. The establishment of the protected area, which will be called Tagal, will grant local villagers legal rights to keep fishermen — especially blast fishers — out of the area.

Additionally, it will provide a source of income to local communities, who will be able to fish outside of the protected zone. Locals will also be able to charge tourists a small fee to dive one of the few healthy reefs remaining in the region. Conservation paired with sustainable economic opportunity for locals may be the only long-term solution for protecting coral reefs in developing countries.

Learn more about Shark Stewards’ work in Malaysia here.

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