Coral reefs are of enormous social and economic importance to millions of people, including some of the world’s poorest communities.

Reefs occur along the vast majority of the Tanzanian coast, and provide food for coastal communities and valuable tourist income; however, they have become increasingly degraded, due to several factors including the long-term use of explosives to catch fish.

Blast fishing in Tanzania is a widespread and pervasive problem, but until now no studies have documented its occurrence at a national scale.

According to the Fishing with explosives in Tanzania report published in November 2015 by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), in March and April 2015, a large-scale vessel-based survey to evaluate the whales and dolphins of Tanzania was conducted using visual observations, and acoustic recordings, to identify vocalising marine mammals.

Simultaneously and inadvertently, in far greater numbers than identified cetaceans, the acoustic equipment also recorded underwater explosions from blast fishing. Acoustic data were collected for a total of 231 hours over 2,692 km of the Tanzanian coast in 31 days in March and early April 2015. A total of 318 blasts were confirmed using a combination of manual and supervised semi-autonomous detection.

Blasts were detected along the entire length of the Tanzanian coast, but by far the highest intensity area for blasting was in the vicinity of Dar es Salaam.

Almost 39 per cent of detected blasts were within 50km, and almost 62 per cent within 80 km of the city. Blast frequency reached almost 10 blasts/hour near Dar on two consecutive days, which is between 3 and 10 times the frequency recorded at all other locations in the country. Other hotspots were Lindi, Tanga, and the Songo Songo area.

70 per cent of blasts occurred in the morning, between 09:00 to 13:00. The WSC Country Director, Dr Tim Davenport, exclusively told the ‘Sunday News’ that whilst it is difficult to say when should the trend continue, will the reefs turn to desert but it was important to recognise this practice does not just impact on the reefs themselves, it also decimates all species of fish, marine mammals and invertebrates in the immediate area as well as all the young juvenile fish so important for fisheries.

When asked whether the interference of President John Magufuli would make a difference, Dr Davenport said that yes, he believes there are capacity shortfalls as regards to marine law enforcement, but there needs to be genuine government which will to tackle this and that the President’s involvement could be a game changer.

Recently the World Wildlife Fund helped organise a festival for local fishermen in Kigamboni to mobilize communities in the fight against illegal fishing where it was learnt that those engaged in dynamite fishing have advanced from using bottles of one litre to up to 10 litres commonly known as ‘ndonga’ filled explosives.

WWF Marine Project Officer, Mr Edgar Kipoki said that the innovation that blast fishermen are using would appear to mean that they are doing it almost freely without prosecution.

“Thanks to the formation of BMUs, dynamite use in fishing has for some time reduced but is bouncing back because raw materials are readily available, innovation has increased and they are now using explosives that don’t make noise and authorities are not doing enough to shut down the markets,” he said.

Beach Management Unit is a system whereby all stakeholders are fully engaged in conservation and management of all useful aquatic resources. Currently, there are over 700 BMUs in the country, with respect to water bodies.

Mr Kipoki said that the use of the bigger bombs as well as a newer explosive that looks like a sweet usually found in mining areas are causing bigger areas to be blasted and causing more damage.

A fisherman of over three decades and the chairman of the Collaborative Fisheries Management Area of Mjimwema, Gezaulole and Mwongozo, Mr Willard Mwinuka, said that the negative impact these bigger bombs cause means that the coral reefs closer to the coast have been turned to dust and fish is getting scarce.

“There was a time when it was customary to give fish when someone comes to visit but this tradition is dying because we have to go further into the ocean to fish but we can only go to a certain limit because our canoes can only allow so,” he said.

Mr Mwinuka said that the blasters have not only made their lives miserable but have also affected the tourism sector in Kigamboni saying that there have been a number of cases where foreign guests heard the explosions and left the beach hotels.

He said that thanks to WWF, many people have been sensitized on the importance of the sea and how it cares for them if they care for it and that it was because of this awareness and with the assistance of the Navy Command, they were able to demolish a ‘pirated’ marked in Buyuni that was known to sell fish from dynamite fishing.

“We have been informed from very reliable sources that this market has now shifted behind the Tanganyika Swimming Club area which is right under the noses of all government authorities including the State House.

We have always known that this practice is conducted by a network of powerful people, the location of this ‘new market’ is the suggestion,” he said.

Mr Mwinuka said that in their communiqué to the government, they would like to deal with Navy Command rather than the marine police because the latter isn’t giving the support they need to arrest the situation and have lost trust adding that an overhaul in the leadership could be helpful.

The chairman said that the main reason for having the festival was to educate the masses on the importance of marine conservation but most importantly get an audience with government officials and hopefully get their position or statement.

The Temeke Municipal Council Fisheries Officer, Mr Ernest Kamata, concurred with the chairman saying that those behind dynamite fishing in the country were very well organised people and highly elusive who keep tabs between those in BMUs and the marine police.

Mr Kamata said that he firmly believes that the establishment of BMUs has immensely helped to reduce the practice and that by working with them; they (fisheries officer) are now respected within the community and no longer seen as the enemy.

“The municipal council is doing its best under the circumstances. Fishery officers are not enough to go around, plus we have no fish market like Magogoni meaning that revenues are lost but have started working to picking a suitable place to build an ultra-modern fish market and increasing human capital,” he said.

The fisheries officer said that from a survey that was conducted last year by WWF to monitor the number of blasts in the country during a sixmonth period using high powered listening devices, it was discovered that 70 per cent of the blasts came from Temeke district between the ferry crossing in Kigamboni and Pemba Mnazi, a 70km stretch of coastline.

He said that evidence shows that Kigamboni has a lot of blasting materials because of the mining activities there and used the opportunity to appeal to relevant authorities to monitor these materials and ensure they reach their destination, if the agents are licensed and only required volumes are purchased.

Given the scale of blast fishing in Tanzania the environmental impact on the sustainability of fisheries and health of coral reefs is likely to be substantial.

In addition, considering the general sensitivity of cetaceans to anthropogenic sound, and the intensity of sound generated by explosions, it is almost certain that they, and possibly other endangered marine megafauna, are impacted negatively by blast fishing.

Of particular concern is the region’s most endangered cetacean, the Indian Ocean humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea) and the Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) both of which are restricted to shallow, near-shore waters which is exactly the habitat where blast fishing is most intense.

By Masembe Tambwe

SOURCE: dailynews.co.tz

 05-06-2016