Dynamite fishing in Tanzania

Slade, Lorna; Kalangahe, Baraka

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.08.025

Cited by 24 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…While the challenges facing small-scale fisheries in Tanzania cannot be overemphasized, anecdotal evidence suggests that some fishers use illegal and destructive fishing methods to secure control over resources. Despite the fact that initiatives by NGOs and government departments (to phase out dynamite use) have already provided some notable results (Slade and Kalangahe, 2015; United Republic of Tanzania (URT), 2016), there is little evidence to date that this has positively influenced attitudes and perceptions toward reducing dynamite practices by either minimizing frequency or occurrence of blasts. The majority of the household survey respondents opposed these initiatives, explaining that they were not consistent with the reality of core problems of their livelihoods and seemed to divide the community instead of prompting solutions in any perceptible way.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A study on the status of destructive fishing activities in the Pacific Islands showed that by the early 1980s, nearly half of the cases on reef degradation were related to damage from explosives and poisons (Veitayaki et al, 1995). In the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region, these methods, particularly dynamite or blast fishing, are still common, especially on the coast of Tanzania (Samoilys and Kayange, 2008;Wells, 2009;Braulik et al, 2015b;Slade and Kalangahe, 2015). For example, dynamite fishing has been experienced in Tanzania since the 1960s and although it was declared illegal in the 1970s it has continued largely unabated since that time (Guard and Masaiganah, 1997;Wells, 2009;Braulik et al, 2015b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While destructive fishing methods are not a new phenomenon, they have posed seemingly intractable challenges to scholars and policy makers seeking to phase them out (Wells, 2009;Nurdin and Grydehøj, 2014;Heber Dunning, 2015;Petrossian, 2015;Slade and Kalangahe, 2015). The devastating impacts of destructive fishing techniques on marine ecosystems and human populations have received considerable attention in scientific studies (Jennings and Lock, 1996;McManus et al, 1997;Riegl and Luke, 1999), and the effects of dynamite fishing have also been investigated in detail (Saila et al, 1993;Guard and Masaiganah, 1997;Pet-Soede and Erdmann, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Arguably, the active role and potential capability of fishers to stop dynamite fishing remains largely unutilized and their actions have not been scaled up by fishing authorities at local governments to meet targets to halt destructive fishing. More recently, there has been some backlash against anti-dynamite campaigns (Slade, 2011;Slade and Kalangahe, 2015), where even the strongest support to fight destructive fishing activities, offered by fishing communities as symbol of their cultural value to fisheries resources, have not prevented the use of dynamite. This has eventually resulted in a fisheries management stalemate, making the use of dynamite virtually impossible to alleviate (Braulik et al, 2015b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fishers' Perceptions of the Recurrence of Dynamite-Fishing Practices on the Coast of Tanzania

Katikiro

Mahenge²

2016

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Dynamite or blast fishing remains the most pervasive destructive fishing method in the coastal waters of Tanzania. It constitutes a major threat to small-scale fisheries through degradation of reefs and other critical habitats for fish. The Tanzanian Government has implemented several measures including a high rate of patrols and surveillance campaigns in the sea to try to deter the use of dynamite in fishing. However, most of these measures have failed to reduce its occurrence over the past years. Little is known on why existing management measures are failing to generate effective solutions to address dynamite and other forms of destructive fishing activities. This study was undertaken to examine perceptions of fishers on the persistent recurrence of dynamite-fishing activities within the present fisheries' management regulations. A random sample of 180 individual fishers was interviewed in two coastal districts using a household survey questionnaire. Key informants, semi-structured interviews and participant observations were used to collect additional data. Almost two thirds of survey respondents felt that an apparent recurrence of dynamite fishing is attributed to the inconsistencies of the fisheries management approaches deployed to thwart the use of dynamite. However, other factors such as absence of appropriate organization of the many involved actors, kinship ties, and migrant fishers played crucial role on the persistence of dynamite fishing. There was a common perception among all survey participants that lack of trust and transparency toward and within anti-dynamite initiatives negatively impacted the involvement of fishers in their efforts to reduce the use of dynamite. An improved situation where decision-making processes are coordinated among fishers, non-governmental, and governmental stakeholders is important to support ongoing management measures, in order to increase legitimacy, and long-term success of efforts to get rid of destructive fishing practices among small-scale fishers in Tanzania.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fishers' Perceptions of the Recurrence of Dynamite-Fishing Practices on the Coast of Tanzania

Katikiro

Mahenge²

2016

Front. Mar. Sci.

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“…One motivation for reef restoration in Indonesia has been in response to an acute local stressor on coral reefs: the use of dynamite or “blast” fishing, which can reduce entire reefs to rubble (Moore & Erdmann ; Wagner ). Blast fishing has been successfully reduced or eliminated in many areas (Slade & Kalangahe ) through enhanced enforcement and spatial protection (i.e. effective marine protected areas and fisheries management) (Alcala ; McClanahan et al ; Fox et al ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rebuilding coral reefs: success (and failure) 16 years after low‐cost, low‐tech restoration

Fox

Harris

Darling

et al. 2019

Restoration Ecology

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Calls for coral reef restoration are increasing amidst continued declines, yet we know little about long-term outcomes and conditions that lead to successful coral recovery. Here, we report on one of the longest monitoring studies following 16 years of large-scale, "low-tech" experimental reef rehabilitation on rubble fields created by chronic blast fishing in Komodo National Park, Indonesia. After blast fishing had stopped, in the absence of rehabilitation, hard coral cover in rubble fields remained about 3% from 1999 to 2016, but on rehabilitation treatments, cover increased from 0% in 2002 to 44.5% (±21.9% SD) in 2016. Coral cover varied among sites and treatments (ranging from <5 to >80% in 2016) in patterns that may reflect current strength and turbidity. Our results demonstrate that low-tech substrate stabilization can facilitate natural coral recruitment and growth. We conclude that relatively low-cost methods can deliver sustained rehabilitation of hard coral cover and that long-term monitoring should be incorporated more widely in restoration activities to inform return on investment.

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Is the Coral Triangle’s future shown in a Pliocene reef gap?

Harrison,

Santodomingo,

Johnson

et al. 2023

Coral Reefs

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Although Pliocene temperature and pCO2 are similar to those predicted in the IPPC RCP4.5 scenario, the distribution of coral reefs in the center of maximum coral diversity, the Coral Triangle, during this period has not been explored. We discovered a significantly lower occurrence of reefs during the Pliocene, which we refer to as the Pliocene Reef Gap, but this decrease was not associated with a drop in coral genus richness. While some of the multiple local causes that drove this decline, such as sea level rise, are analogs to drivers of Anthropocene reef decline, neither warming nor increasing pCO2 are among them.

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Dynamite fishing in Tanzania

Cited by 24 publications

References 2 publications

Fishers' Perceptions of the Recurrence of Dynamite-Fishing Practices on the Coast of Tanzania

Fishers' Perceptions of the Recurrence of Dynamite-Fishing Practices on the Coast of Tanzania

Rebuilding coral reefs: success (and failure) 16 years after low‐cost, low‐tech restoration

Is the Coral Triangle’s future shown in a Pliocene reef gap?

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