JASON RUBENS (OFF CAMERA): Now, now, now, now, now!

CAPTAIN (OFF CAMERA):: You’re filming, ya? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…

[explosion sound]

There we go.

JASON RUBENS: You can come out here on a fine morning and you know there’ll just be rampant blasting in areas where there are maybe tuna feeds, or if there aren’t tuna feeds, then they may target the reefs.

I would say probably for the last five years, it’s at least as bad or worse then it’s ever been.

CAPTAIN: There's three down there, three here, and there's two down there, ya? Eight, ya?

DYNAMITE FISHERMAN: The situation is that we don't have proper fishing equipment, so we can't work.

The easiest way for many people to earn something is from fishing with dynamite.
This end fits into the dynamite.

You make a hole and fit it in there.

Then you attach it to the bottle, and now it's complete.

GILL BRAULIK: When an explosion occurs, there’s a big pressure wave that passes through the sea, and within a few meters of the blast, it will kill all living creatures.
The biggest problem is that it kills adult fish, which are the target, but also all the small juveniles and numerous other creatures that really have no economic value at all.

OMARI ABDALLAH: Dynamite fishermen don't look out for coral, turtles, or anything. They just throw the bomb.

If turtles or other marine life are there when the bomb explodes, it will kill all of them.

JASON RUBENS: The ecological importance of reefs, whether it’s for biodiversity or whether it’s for fisheries productivity or even for coastline protection and sort of wave buffering, really depends on the three-dimensional structure of the reef.
It’s the three-dimensional structure that provides a lot of habitat and space for fish eggs and larvae and juveniles to hide from predators and as a feeding habitat and so on.

Blasting, literally, physically, destroys the three-dimensional structure of the reef.
If you see places where there’s been a history of blasting or even a limited amount of blasting, you’ll If you see places where there’s been a history of blasting or even a limited amount of blasting, you’ll basically see the reef has been reduced to a rubble field.

GILL BRAULIK: It’s already been widespread for decades. The marine environment is becoming less attractive and certainly from the point of view of providing food for local communities, catches are dropping.

OMARI ABDALLAH: My goal is to educate the community on how to conserve our ocean resources.

That's my main goal—to work and educate the community so that the species will exist for future generations.

JASON RUBENS: If no action is taken, we’re just going to see a continued free–for–all, we’ll see continuing decline in fish stocks, we’ll see continuing degradation of coral reef habitats.

It’ll be an increasing security concern as well, as long as there’s explosives available to the extent that they are.