Blast fishing or dynamite fishing is the practice of using explosives to kill schools of fishes for the purpose of collecting them easily. This can be greatly dangerous to the encompassing environment, as the blast often destroys the basic natural surroundings, for example, coral reefs that are very much fundamental for the fishes. It is also considered as an unlawful practice of fishing. The nature of the explosives used also implies risk for the fishermen with mishaps and wounds due to immature detonation of the explosive.
The conceivable points of interest of blast fishing are exceeded by its negative ecological outcomes and the backhanded impacts of those results. Then again, blast fishing proceeds right up until today, regardless of the widespread information about its negative outcomes. Even though the act has been banned worldwide, it is unfortunately still being practiced in more than 40 countries worldwide, especially in Southeast Asia, Aegean Sea and also in the coastal regions of Africa.
Blast fishing is also in existence even today near the southern parts of Philippine too. We, the children of Mother Earth, sometimes act as if we never love our planet, our Mother! It is also well documented that blast fishing was known before World War I. There have also been reports in 1999 expressing that about 70,000 fishermen were carrying this practice of fishing in Philippines alone.
Endangered Species International (ESI) has explained that blast fishing which is also known as explosive fishing or dynamite fishing is a fishing method where homemade explosives are exploded in marine territories to kill large schools of fishes in a very short span of time. After the explosives go off, the fishes float to the surface of the water, and it would be relatively easier for the fishermen to collect the dead fishes when compared to the old technique of throwing in the fishing net and waiting for the fishes to get caught.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) has also explained that whenever the explosives are exploded, schools of fishes die and float to the surface of the water. The Tropical Research and Conservation Center (TRCC) reports that a blast can kill more than 2500 fishes at a time. It surely is a quick way to gather fishes and save time a lot. But, the ecological problem adjoining with the method? Who cares as long as we get benefit! Right?. We human beings sometime do not understand the heights of the problems that would occur in the nearing future. This is one such mess of a thing we are inviting for ourselves.
Blast fishing has become quite popular in-spite of its ecological problems, all thanks to the economical thinking of human beings. We are fundamentally ascribed to just trading and nothing beyond that. We are not caring towards the nature by looking at the money we can earn or something else.
There are numerous reports which express that the explosives cost two US dollars or less to develop, while the fish yields that the fishermen produce can cost as much as 40 US dollars, making it financially savvy for many people who indulge themselves with the process. Numerous fishermen likewise accept that despite the fact that blast fishing convey a generally high danger of work related perils, it is sufficiently productive to compensate. It is conceivable that the monetary circumstance encompassing blast fishing may need to change before the environmentalists can make noteworthy advancement towards banning the practice, in spite of the fact that the eventual fate of blast fishing is indeterminate.
Commonly used explosives during blast fishing are homemade bombs developed using a glass container with layers of powdered potassium nitrate and ammonia nitrate and kerosene mixture. Such explosives, however, may blast rashly without cautioning, and have been known to harm or kill the individual utilizing them, or the innocent people standing nearby.
Underwater shock waves produced by the blast stagger the fish and rupture their swimming bladders. This breaking causes an unexpected loss of buoyancy causing a little number of fish buoy to the surface and many others sink to the floor of the water body. The blasts aimlessly kill large numbers of fish and other marine living beings in the region and can harm or obliterate the physical environment.
Creatures other than fish, including ocean turtles, can be influenced by the explosions from blast fishing. The explosives used for blast fishing are frequently made with manures and kerosene, which can go about as natural toxins when they are brought into marine situations. Endangered species will be influenced in a bigger number of routes than one by blast fishing, and more species will get to be imperiled as an issue.
Blast fishing can have huge negative impacts on coral reefs too. It ought to additionally be recognized that blast fishing is pretty much as unsustainable financially as it is naturally. The explosives used as a part of blast fishing can discharge shock-waves that are dangerous to the marine biological communities and also coral reef environments specifically.
Coral reefs may require in any event a century to come back to ordinary after blast fishing has harmed their live coral, and that is accepting that their potential recovery won’t be disturbed by some other types of outside impedance. Many reports also say that blast fishing is one of the two essential dangers to coral reefs in Southeast Asia.
Numerous nations have laws with respect to blast fishing, however they are not completely executed. Fishermen who still practice the method of Blast Fishing may be imprisoned for as many as 10 years. However, there seems to no much of a strict imposement of law to stop the fishermen from carrying on such brutal act of fishing. It really is a serious environmental problem.
This serious problem can definitely be controlled. Tanzania has taken some joint approaches between the fisheries officers and town advisory groups. The ocean surface is being watched by both and the data is gathered in the nearby towns. As an issue, this has helped the concerned authorities to lessen the event of fish blasting from a normal of eight per day to zero.
