Sabah, Malaysia: George Woodman’s first experience of fish bombing in Sabah—a Malaysian state in the northern part of the island of Borneo—was in 1994 during an underwater survey of the area’s renowned coral reefs.

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.

Nothing beats dynamite fishing for sheer efficiency.

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.

ShotSpotter has two environmental initiatives which have shown great technical promise – protecting rhinos in Africa from poaching and locating fish bomb blasts in the tropics.

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.

Destructive fishing using explosives occurs in a number of countries worldwide, negatively impacting coral reefs and fisheries on which millions of people rely. Documenting, quantifying and combating the problem has proved problematic. 

The South Sulawesi Police have arrested 15 people for allegedly importing illegal explosive materials from Malaysia to be used for blast fishing in Pangkajene and Islands regency, South Sulawesi.

Sabah will use an American technology called ShotSpotter to combat fish bombing which is a serious issue in the state.

Seventy per cent of the southern reefs at Semporna Priority Conservation Area (PCA) were impacted by fish bombing activities at various levels, said Choo Poh Leem from WWF-Malaysia.

The flat, hot calm of an afternoon on the Philippine Sea is broken by an ear-splitting explosion. A plume of water rockets upwards. And fishermen, who had thrown a homemade explosive into the ocean just seconds before, rush to scoop up stunned and dying fish.