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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Dimuthu Attanayake in Pulmudai, Sri Lanka

‘Everything is destroyed’: dynamite use sends shockwaves through fishing industries

Two men in a boat look at a spout of water erupting from ocean, caused by blast fishing.
Illegal blast fishing has a devastating impact on marine life, killing juvenile fish and eggs as well as the reefs in which they live. Photograph: Wildlife GmbH/Alamy

The immediate aftermath of a blast is obvious, says Wilson Perera: the ocean turns murky with blood and is strewn with fish that are missing eyes or other organs. Those fish that are wounded swim off to die elsewhere. Their carcasses wash ashore days later.

“Everything within a 100-metre radius of the blast is destroyed – coral reefs, marine plants and animals,” says Perera.

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