Building a community blast-fishing monitoring network, tanzania
Fishing using explosives, known as “dynamite fishing,” is widespread across the length of Tanzania’s 800-km Indian Ocean coastline. Currently, dynamite fishing is considered to be more widely practiced than ever before and presents one of the foremost threats to the country’s rich coral reef and in-shore fishery resources, its lucrative coastal tourism industry, the livelihoods of the millions of people who depend on coastal fisheries for their resources, and the peace and security of Tanzania’s coastal areas.
In 2014, Mwambao conducted a multi-stakeholder consultation, which covered the entire coast and shed light on factors enabling this practice to flourish. Key factors include easy availability of cheap materials for making explosive devices, influential businessmen who finance the operation and market the fish, lack of local marine resource ‘ownership’ (i.e. inoperational Beach Management Units), ineffective law-enforcement at the district level as a result of corruption, and a lack of political will at all levels.
Major coastal towns appear to be the hubs with well-connected businessmen financing the operation and using local villagers as crew. Village fishers also engage in the practice on their own, both on foot and using local boats. Explosions no longer rely on sticks of dynamite; home-made bombs are common and are created using bottles and granular fertilizer. Fishers report that it is normal to hear between 20 to 50 blasts a day. Despite being aware of the destructive effects they continue to use explosives because of poverty, and are tempted by the quick returns.
This project aims to pilot a data collection network using mobile phone technology, recording the frequency and location of blast fishing and related events on the Tanzanian coast, for a period of 6 months from October 2015.
