In Philippines, dynamite fishing is destroying all life in the ocean
From microscopic plankton to sea horses, anemones and sharks, little survives inside the radius of an explosion
Nothing beats dynamite fishing for sheer efficiency.
A fisherman in this scattering of islands in the central Philippines balanced on a narrow outrigger boat and launched a bottle bomb into the sea with the ease of a quarterback. It exploded in a violent burst, rocking the bottom of our boat and filling the air with an acrid smell. Fish bobbed onto the surface, dead or gasping their last breaths.
Under the water, coral shattered into rubble.
The blast ruptured the internal organs of reef fish, fractured their spines or tore at their flesh with coral shrapnel. From microscopic plankton to sea horses, anemones and sharks, little survives inside the 9- to 30-metre radius of an explosion.
With 27,194 square kilometres of coral reef, the Philippines is a global centre for marine biodiversity, which the country has struggled to protect in the face of human activity and institutional inaction. But as the effects of climate change on oceans become more acute, stopping dynamite and other illegal fishing has taken on a new urgency.
Reefs destroyed
According to the initial findings of a survey of Philippine coral reefs conducted from 2015 to 2017 and published in the Philippine Journal of Science, there are no longer any reefs in excellent condition, and 90 per cent were classified as either poor or fair. A 2017 report by the United Nations predicts that all 29 World Heritage coral reefs, including one in the Philippines, will die by 2100 unless carbon emissions are drastically reduced.
“It is a bit dismal,” said Porfirio Alino, a research professor specialising in corals at the Marine Science Institute at the University of the Philippines in Diliman.
The effects of climate change — warming waters and acidification that cause coral bleaching and push some reefs to death — are difficult to address. But if the stresses caused by human activity can be stopped, Alino explained, coral reefs have a better chance of surviving.
Dynamite fishing destroys both the food chain and the corals where the fish nest and grow. It kills the entire food chain, including plankton, fish both large and small, and the juveniles that do not grow old enough to spawn. Without healthy corals, the ecosystem and the fish that live within it begin to die off.
With a rubber hose attached to an air pump wedged between his teeth, and no other gear aside from a single homemade flipper and a pair of goggles, one of the fishermen sank 30 feet into the water after the bomb went off. He lurched along the ocean floor, collecting stunned and dead fish among the broken coral.
Twenty minutes later he surfaced, heaving for breath, with five high-value reef fish and 5.5kg of scad and sardines. It was a small catch.
The men on the boat saved a few handfuls for their families, and sold the rest to a local trader. The two men split the earnings, about $10 (Dh36), between them.
The fisherman says it is the only job he knows that earns this kind of money.
For legal net fishermen, 2.7kg of fish is a good day. Often, they come back with nothing. With dynamite fishing he can come back with 9kg and sometimes as much as 20kg, if he lucks out with a large grouper.
In 2014, the European Union issued a yellow card to the Philippines warning that it would be banned from exporting to the bloc unless its fishing activities were better regulated. In response, the Philippines produced a new fisheries code that called for stricter measures against illegal methods and commercial overfishing. In 2015, the yellow card was lifted.
“Our law is harsh, painful and swift,” said Eduardo Gongona, director of the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. “We have no pity on illegal fishers and illegal fishing.”
Gloria Ramos, vice president of Oceana Philippines, a nongovernmental organisation for ocean conservation, agreed that the new laws were strong but said they were not being properly implemented because of the influence the commercial fishing industry has over government officials.
Despite signs that Philippine fisheries are collapsing, Ramos said, “there is no sense of urgency.”
‘Overstating the problem’
Gongona said that groups like Oceana were overstating the problem to get more funding, and that any reduction in the numbers of wild-caught fish could be made up for by increasing the output of commercial fish farms.
On one of the islands of Bohol, Jaime Abenido, a grizzled 68-year-old handline fisherman who does not use dynamite, said that 30 years ago, he could go out to sea and fill his boat with fish “until it started to sink.” Today there are far fewer fish, he says, and the ones that remain are tiny. He listed half a dozen species he has not seen in decades.
In the Philippines, stocks have declined precipitously. According to a report by the Philippine national statistics board, the average daily catch in 1970 was 20kg. By 2000, that had dropped to 2kg. In those years, declining fish stocks pushed more people into illegal fishing.
Developing more sustainable fishing practices as well as other economic opportunities would help people transition out of destructive fishing, Alino said. Countries and corporations that emit high levels of carbon could also provide more support.
Back on the water, I asked the dynamite fisherman if he thought he was the reason there were fewer fish. He shook his head. His parents used this method before him, he said, and there are still fish in the sea.
What would happen, I asked, if the scientists were right, and the oceans did run out of fish? He contemplated the possibility for a moment. “Patay,” he answered. The fishermen would be dead.
But he doesn’t believe that. The fish will never run out, he said. It was a statement more of denial than hope.
Thirty years ago, I would go out to sea and fill my boat with fish until it started to sink. Today, there are far fewer fish, and the ones that remain are very tiny.”
Jaime Abenido |
68-year-old fisherman