Improving Stakeholder and Authority Cooperation Among Coastal Fishing Communities Using Passive Blast Monitoring Data

An increased awareness of the mounting pressure on the marine ecosystem as well as the enormity of the recreational SCUBA dive industry has brought about a greater awareness of the challenges facing the marine environment. One key issue is destructive fishing. Destructive fishing is a blanket term used to describe a multitude of fishing methods which are low cost and extremely effective in terms of catch. However, the practice is not sustainable mainly due to the considerable wasted by-catch and irreversible damage done to critical marine eco-systems and habitats. In South-East Asia, the prevalence of destructive fishing is often precipitated by poor socio-economic conditions in coastal communities. Eradicating destructive fishing requires complex, widespread and holistic action on many levels. A proven solution is to engage the authorities and stakeholders and elicit their cooperation to implement alternative livelihood programs. One of the critical problems hindering this action is the lack of knowledge regarding the extent of any destructive fishing activity currently being carried out. It is unrealistic to expect successful practical solutions to be based upon hearsay from divers or datasets collected over the period of only a few days or even sometimes hours. Until recently most of the stakeholders involved in tackling the issue of destructive fishing have been giving the issue a low priority. There are a multitude of reasons for this. One key issue is the lack of understanding of the real situation by those stakeholders can act to reduce it. The lack of available data is a prime reason for this. Until now the approach has been to simply push the responsibility for eradication towards tacking the problem using enforcement. However without engaging and enlisting community support, this approach is impractically expensive. In addition the resources required need to continue to be continually made available, otherwise the destructive fishing will return. The enforcement approach also ignores the needs of the communities. Blast fishing is the predominant and wide-spread method of destructive fishing. It is also a useful indicator of the level of destructive fishing occurring in an area. Recent advancements in technology have made detecting it with Passive Acoustic Monitors (PAM), Passive Seismic Monitors (PSM) or Passive Blast Detectors (PBD) reliable and inexpensive. The use of passive monitoring systems allows a non-confrontational approach to be adopted. Data from these devices can be reinforced with fish and coral data to further quantify the impact of destructive fishing. Furthermore, comparing data from different areas allows the determination of whether blast fishing is a major factor impacting fish stocks in areas, especially within marine protected areas. This paper identifies some of the factors that should be utilized in the decision making for the collection and presentation of collected blast data, allowing it to be used to effectively to captivate stakeholders and elicit cooperation with the authorities. The use of passive monitoring ensures almost continuous uninterrupted data collection, effective resource allocation, and the ability to identify areas of particular interest such as blasting hot spots. An interesting finding is that the use of passive monitoring can reveal previously unknown trends and events occurring especially at night. Continued background monitoring can also be used to justify any ongoing effort that is eliminating destructive fishing practices.