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BOOMING DOOM
By Kumudini Hettiarachchi
The scene is straight from a picture postcard. The turquoise sea is calm and a soft wind is causing only light ripples on the surface. The sky is bright and blue. Tranquillity and harmony with nature reign supreme. It could be off Trincomalee, Kalpitiya or Mirissa.

And then…….. there’s a boom, quite close to shore, shattering the silence and sending a fountain of foam and water high into the air. It’s a massacre. Some victims float, others drop down to the seabed and the area resembles a small war zone.

Silently those in the boat that had earlier glided in and left this trail of destruction take out nets, collecting the dead fish, while one or two dive down to the seabed and pick up what they want. Then the boat takes off, leaving not only hundreds of “unwanted” fish dead, but also destroying the habitat, including the corals and their organisms.

A blast-fishing operation has just ended. Blast-fishing is using explosives, particularly dynamite to kill or stun fish. “Blast-fishing seems to be on the rise. I have been in the water when the dynamiting of fish has occurred and it’s terrible. I was shaken badly,” says Terney Pradeep Kumara, an expert diver and Lecturer of the Department of Fisheries Biology of the Ruhuna University.
“Loku saddayak, loku kampanayak athiwuna,” he says explaining there was a big noise and a big shock. “I got very scared and my ears hurt.”

Mr. Kumara had been diving off Pigeon Island in Trincomalee and off Hikkaduwa and Mirissa when he experienced blast-fishing and saw the massive death and destruction that follows.

The Sunday Times learns that though in the past blast-fishing had been practised on a small-scale in Trincomalee, it is on the rise not only there but also in some areas off the southern coast and in Kalpitiya. Now both dynamite and hand grenades are being used.

“It is the easy way of catching fish, for you do not have to toil and sweat,” says a conservationist who declined to be identified. When one boat drops a blast and the sound is heard, a flotilla of boats quickly comes close to pick up the yield, he says.The dead fish floating at the top are scooped up in dip nets and in recent years scuba and diving gear is used by these fishermen to go down to the seabed to harvest those at the bottom.

“A new development seems to be to use a charge of explosives to stun fish seen from the surface before using a net to collect the whole shoal. Some fishermen who used nets earlier to earn a livelihood are now misusing explosives to maximize their catch,” added another conservationist.

The fishermen get the dynamite from quarry owners while the northeast conflict has been a major source for getting hand grenades, says Mr. Kumara.
Dubbing blast-fishing a “massacre”, Dr. Ruchira Cumaranathunga, Head of the Department of Fisheries Biology of the Ruhuna University says the symptoms of fish that have died are easy to find. “Clotted blood in the eyes, both internal and external bleeding and damage, extreme suppleness of the fish due to bone and tissue damage and pale gills are some of the signs.”

Explosives used during blast-fishing cause the swimbladder (which helps fish to keep their buoyancy during swimming) to rupture, causing loss of balance and buoyancy. She herself has picked up fish that have been “caught” through blast-fishing in markets in the south, she says.

Lamenting that though her department has been forwarding reports with regard to blast-fishing, after laboriously dissecting samples brought to them by the police, Dr. Cumaranathunga says the cases against the culprits get thrown out because lawyers argue that fisheries biologists do not have a mandate, licence or authority to give such reports.

So the blast-fishermen have a field day, though this practice is banned both under the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act No. 2 of 1996 as amended by the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Amendment) Act No. 4 of 2004 and the Fauna and Flora Ordinance, while the authorities turn the other way and pretend it does not happen.

According to Mr. Kumara blast-fishing is four times more effective than non-destructive fishing. However, it is short –term. “Fishermen engaging in blast-fishing get a huge temporary increase in their income but it will dwindle to less than one-quarter of that after 10-15 years.”

Quick and easy money for a few, but at what cost to one of Sri Lanka’s biggest natural resources, the ocean and the wealth it has to offer to posterity?

The dangers
The whole shoal of fish gets killed leaving none to breed and propagate the shoal.

Corals and other reef organisms are damaged or killed outright.

The livelihood of traditional fishermen is affected

The marine ornamental fishery industry is affected.

When blast-fishing is carried out in resort areas, it could pose a danger to tourists and divers while causing negative publicity.

“Butterfly fish are used as an indicator of overall reef health or bio-diversity. Not surprisingly badly damaged reef has very few fish species or none at all. The empty shells of giant clams can be seen buried or overturned and sea cucumbers or lobsters are missing or drastically reduced in number after blast-fishing,” says Mr. Kumara.

He says such destructive fishing demolishes the 3D structure of the reef, no longer providing shelter and food to reef organisms. “The corals break into pieces making them vulnerable to wave action, leaving the shoreline open to erosion. It replaces the live reef with dead rubble mounds. The high shock waves kill most coral organisms and also smother all living coral further down the reef slope.”

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