Boom There Goes Another Piece Of Reef.

It was just another normal day. We had taken the Ponga out to collect fish off the reef. We were ferrying some VIP’s from the Philippine government so that they could watch what we did.

I was under water when a sharp crack went through my entire body. I immediately surfaced, my ears ringing. The people in the Ponga indicated by pointing to another boat about one half mile away. It soon became apparent what was happening when another crack went through my body. Luckily my ears were in the air and the shock wave coming from the bloom of water did not get them this time. It was obvious. The other boat was dynamite fishing.

We all got out of the water to the safety of the boat. We motored over to the fisherman and when faced with an armed fish and game man he said that they were spear fishing. And to prove it he held up a trigger fish with a spear hole in it. We jumped into the water and headed downward. We didn’t have to go far to see the extent of the damage.

There were fish everywhere. Some just floating in mid water, stunned or dead. Many fishes were laying on the bottom, writhing in pain as they slowly succumbed to the internal damage that a massive shock wave had caused. The coral and the anemones and worms were all dead. A mini-atom bomb had wiped them and their home out.

The fisherman didn’t use dynamite on these poor hapless creatures. He used a sort of molotov cocktail. Don’t ask me how gasoline explodes under water, it just does. And it hurts. Hurts the environment, kills all the creatures nearby and stuns many more. The fisherman gets a boat load of food fish. Kills the reef off and sells his fish so that he can buy some white rice for his family.

To explain the damage is reprehensible to the ears. The fisherman is killing off his own fishing grounds because he can’t catch fish the way his ancestors did it. It’s a race, a race to see who can get the most off the reef. The reef be damned. Short term greed for a few lousy dollars.

How does this effect you and the hobby. This greedy fisherman wiped out many thousands of reef fish that are inedible just for a few edible ones. This makes the small reef fish harder to find and wipes out their habitats so they won’t even come back. This makes it harder for the tropical fish collector to find specimens to sell. They in turn turn to short cut methods to catch their prey. Further habitat destruction so that the hobbyist can keep that rare angel. Only rare because his only habitat is a long way from the village and it costs to get them home.

Is there any thing you can do. No, not really. Just thought you’d like to know.