Blast fishing – an unstoppable scourge?

Many of us might not have had the opportunity to meet Al Bernard Coyoca.  His face now haunts all of us, a brutal victim of a scourge afflicting our oceans and our future – dynamite fishing.

A professional scuba diver for almost 15 years, he left behind his grieving parents, seven children, family and friends, who  like him surely, are perplexed and never expected him, or divers for that matter, to die through a dynamite thrown into the oceans which he passionately loved.

He  happened to be diving in the waters of Daanbantayan on that sad day of September 30 when his life was snuffed off . Who killed him? From news reports,  fishers did it, who, like their cohorts in the obnoxious and illegal blast fishing trade, wanted money the easy way, never mind if lives, limbs, and our already threatened natural life support systems are recklessly destroyed.

But if we think long and hard about it, we all contributed to Al Bernard Coyoca’s brutal and premature demise.

Fishing with the use of explosives had long been outlawed, yet the same has been allowed to be practiced in municipal waters, with impunity. Neighbors in coastal areas know who are doing it. Yet has anyone been held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law?

The city or municipal governments have the jurisdiction over municipal waters. The LGUs, in consultation with the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council, exercise the management, conservation, development, protection, utilization and disposition of all fish and fisheries and aquatic resources within their respective municipal waters. Has any LGU official been held administratively liable for failure to do something to stop illegal blast fishing in his or her city or municipality?

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources has been quoted to have declared that 10,000 incidents occur every day in our archipelago of 7,100 islands.

A publication “Go Easy on the Sea” describes dynamite fishing as one of the most destructive fishing methods.

Practically a  homemade bomb, it uses available materials, potassium nitrate and other substances for fertilizer, which are obviously cheap and so easy to access. The explosives are thrown towards the fish or coral reef and exploded on the water surface. Sometimes, these are used below the surface and in reef areas.  The fish die from the shock waves created from the blast and are gathered at the surface or at the bottom. The explosion not only kills the fish but also “pulverizes the coral reefs.”

Blast or dynamite fishing entails a huge loss to society and our economy, estimated at US$2.1 billion over a twenty-year period, if we are to quantify  “sustainable fishery income, coastal protection, aesthetics, potential tourism revenue, biodiversity benefits”. (https://www.oneocean.org/download/db_files/go_easy_on_the_sea_booklet.pdfhas)

The figure does not even include the lives and limbs lost arising from the nefarious activity.

Amid the alarmingly declining fish stocks, the challenges of pollution and unregulated coastal development and destroyed habitats, we can no  longer afford to close our eyes to the reality that the impunity of blast fishing and its dangerous and destructive impacts on our people and marine ecosystems must end.

It should be reiterated that the Fisheries Code has been amended by RA 10654 early this year and the implementing rules signed by Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala  to prevent and deter illegal fishing. The fines and penalties for dynamite fishing and other violations have been substantially increased. In addition, stronger measures such as citizens suits and anti-SLAPP (strategic  lawsuits against public participation) have been integrated to empower enforcers and citizens to hold accountable violators of our fisheries laws and those officials who do not implement the law.

Mar Guidote of Ecofish, on his Facebook page, implored that “Aside from Cebu Provincial Police Office, now the Department of Tourism, Cebu Provincial Government, PNP Maritime Group and Philippine Navy must help LGUs in doing something too.” And adds, “Let us start from the basic: the source of the blasting caps”.

We likewise call on the Ombudsman, the Department of Interior and Local Government and our Congress, in the exercise of oversight functions, to investigate why this scourge of the seas is allowed to continue its unrelenting path of destruction to our vanishing coral reefs, our embattled oceans and our vastly threatened future?