Case Study 3 – Cyanide Fishing on Reefs in Indonesia
Cyanide fishing takes place in small Indonesian villages.
It involves the use of cyanide solution in bottles. The solution is usually made up by dissolving tablets in sea water.
The targeted fish are sprayed with cyanide solution.
The cyanide stuns the fish allowing the fisherman to catch them easily (Halim, 2002).
Indonesian Cyanide Fishing -Data
It has been found that concentrations as low as one part in one million can kill the coral.
On Spermonde archipelago, one litre of the solution is used to catch one fish. This is a very large amount for just one fish.
The cyanide used for one fish can affect up to one square metre of reef, killing invertebrates and small fish.
The fishermen also break the coral with crowbars in order to obtain stunned fish (Cesar,2000).
