We will work with indigenous community and the marine police to stop blast fishing which threatens 1,720 hectares of coral reefs in the Tiworo Islands, Indonesia. This also endangers over 8,000 local indigenous fishermen, as these coral reefs are their key fishing grounds, sources of food and medicine, and irreplaceable places for their traditional ceremonies.

Strictly prohibited in Indonesia, blast fishing deadly destroys coral reefs. A blast using 0.5–2 kg explosive can destroy 5–20 m radius of reef (≈80–1,200 m²), with near-100% coral mortality. Without intervention, severely blasted sites may remain degraded for decades.

In fact, the marine police already eradicated blast fishing in 2000 through sea patrols. But since 2024, due to economic problems, the national government radically cut the state budget and all state agencies had to eliminate certain items in their regular budget. The marine police alone had to reduce their sea patrol schedule from three times daily to only twice a week. This triggered a resurgence of blast fishing in coral reef areas across the country.

Since then, we and the community have tried our best to help ward off blast fishers, including by conducting voluntary sea patrols. But we found this to be ineffective and dangerous because blast fishers operate during the dark of the moon, making them difficult to detect, and they threaten to bomb us when we approach.

After intensive discussions with the marine police, we plan to assist their operation to intercept blast fishers with the help of a Digital Night Vision Monocular (see the interception plan in image #2). This solution is also very safe because the community and blast fishers don't need to physically confront each other.

This project will serve as a model for other coral reefs across Indonesia that face similar problems.

Indonesia has 2.5 million ha of coral reefs – which is 14% of global coral reefs – consisting of 569 coral species, four of which are endemic.