"Stop Fish Bombing is NOT Mission: Impossible” was presented in the “End Use Case Study” Session of the Oceanology International Americas 2023 Conference in San Diego February 14 - 16.

In central Indonesia’s Spermonde archipelago, a coral reef destroyed by blast fishing — where sticks of dynamite are thrown into the reef to kill fish — has been recovering, but scientists weren’t sure if its ecosystem would return as well. That is, until they heard the endearingly unusual sounds of marine life.

Small-scale and subsistence fisheries play an important role in the livelihoods and food security of several local communities worldwide. However, the status and dynamics of many fishing practices are unknown, particularly regarding destructive fishing practices such as blast fishing.

The Integrated Reef Protection System (IRPS) uses the cloud to connect underwater acoustic arrays, the M2 smart radar with high resolution camera and drone, covert hydrophones, real-time hydrophones and sound traps, and boat mounted sensors with the smartphone "Respond App” to displays blast location in minutes for enforcement officials to protect fragile Marine Protected Areas.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing costs economies up to US$50 billion globally each year, and makes up to one-fifth of the global catch. It’s a huge problem not only for the 59.5 million people who depend on fisheries for their livelihoods, but also for the environment.

SFB-USA and SFB-MY recently joined BluHope.org for a webinar about fish bombing in Sabah.

While continuing our work in the Marine Protected Areas in Malaysian Borneo, Stop Fish Bombing USA is lending our expertise and technology to an issue much closer to home: bombs in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

There is growing interest in the relatively time-consuming, complex and expensive process of growing coral fragments in nurseries for transplant back into the wild.

UK native James Morgan was studying photography in London when he read about a group of seafaring Southeast Asian nomads who had survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami with almost no casualties.

Malaysia is a treasure trove of shark and ray diversity, with many endemic species valuable to the natural heritage and ecology, and with increasing value to the Malaysian economy that extends beyond fishing. As the population increases and more people rely on the oceans for food, managing marine food resource sustainably is increasingly urgent.

Marine life face threats from many different human activities, including fishing, habitat destruction and man-made noise. Underwater sound is well studied and understood but can now be modeled so that the results from the models reflect both the physical factors and the biological responses in an integrated way.

Results are presented of a demonstration of real-time fish blast location in Sabah, Malaysia using a networked hydroacoustic array based on the ShotSpotter gunshot location system.