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Acoustic monitoring to document the spatial distribution and hotspots of blast fishing in Tanzania Marine Pollution Bulletin 125 pp360-365 (2017)
Gill Braulik, Anja Wittich, Jamie Macaulay, Magreth Kasuga, Jonathan Gordon, Tim R.B. Davenport, Douglas Gillespie
Destructive fishing using explosives occurs in a number of countries worldwide, negatively impacting coral reefs
and fisheries on which millions of people rely. Documenting, quantifying and combating the problem has proved
problematic. In March–April 2015 231 h of acoustic data were collected over 2692 km of systematically laid
transects along the entire coast of Tanzania. A total of 318 blasts were confirmed using a combination of manual
and supervised semi-autonomous detection. Blasts were detected along the entire coastline, but almost 62% were
within 80 km of Dar es Salaam, where blast frequency reached almost 10 blasts/h. This study is one of the first to
use acoustic monitoring to provide a spatial assessment of the intensity of blast fishing. This can be a useful tool
that can provide reliable data to define hotspots where the activity is concentrated and determine where enforcement should be focused for maximum impact