Stop Fish Bombing USA End Of Year 2020 Summary And 2021 Objectives
Dieter Rudolph, Robert Showen, Clark Dunson, Terence Lim
January 2021
OUR VISION
"Our goal is to eradicate the harmful practice of fish bombing by combining evolving technology with community resources to protect marine environs worldwide.”
2020 Accomplishments
A challenging year but progress was made despite Covid restricted movement in both Kota Kinabalu and Bay Area. The 2019/2020 effort funded by Lauder Associates in the amount of $750K has made great strides working with our operational partner SFB Malaysia by installing and operating two BlastSpotter Arrays in Kota Kinabalu waters and in Semporna; collaborating with Sabah Parks and other Malaysian government entities.
2020 brought many revelations about how detecting fish bombs differs from detecting urban gunfire. The bomb sounds have much longer duration that required sensor adjustments to optimize performance. Enhancements so far include: Lengthening the pulse detection kernel and changing it to use amplitude rather than sharpness; Deployment of pulse classification onto the sensor (a first); and Developing classification algorithms in the cloud specifically trained for fish bombs. Signal processing including adaptive training of a discriminator has reduced the loud shrimp click interference with the underwater-borne blasts. This method might also be useful for gunfire discrimination. These and other basic sensor settings will continue to be tuned during 2021.
The array in Kota Kinabalu was originally intended as an engineering array, due to its convenient close proximity to the local Sabah team. Few, if any, bombs were expected. That expectation was incorrect. Over a dozen blasts were located offshore of Kota Kinabalu with two interdictions resulting in the arrest of five people. There were 2 prosecutions. However no fish bomb apparatus was found in possession. Instead they were charged under the Immigration Law since at the time of capture they did not have valid documents with them. The bomb reports that followed deployment, together with the arrests, have revealed the existence of the array to local fishermen. The result is a change in behavior, and re-location of the bombing activity to be further North. One of the goals of the system is deterrence, and we believe it has been demonstrated here. Had the upcoming Radar/camera system been installed and operating, tracking the boats from the time of the blast to the time of interception the evidence that these people were the blasters would have been incontestable! Additionally, the stored radar tracks before the blast might have shown from where the blasters originated and with which other boats they might have rendezvoused. It is also important to note that Sabah Parks uses the fish bombing data to identify bombing “hot spots” that allows their enforcement team to manage the time and location of patrol.
We deployed four solar powered sensor platforms two at resorts and two on floating platforms in Semporna. The floating platforms have the dual purpose of placing sensors seaward of the extended reef and also to act as a Fish Aggregating Device FAD. One of the floating platforms was vandalized by cutting a cable securing one of the anchors allowing the platform to drift. We recovered the platform and can put it back in service when needed. The operational platform is now equipped with a boat location logger from PelagicData.
We also successfully deployed a 200 meter cable by modifying the hydrophone preamp and Scepter 2 daughter board for the higher current required by the long cable. The long cable allows us to place hydrophones beyond the reefs from a secure sensor site on land, enabling many more deployment locations that would otherwise not be possible.
Application of seismometry to the fish bombing problem may bring new insights into old data sets, new partnerships, and we intend to drive the conversation in 2021. To this end, we developed a three-axis accelerometer prototype covering a frequency from near DC to 6 kHz, so that both water-borne and ground-borne amplitudes and directions can be measured. The three-axis accelerometer is significantly less expensive, smaller, and easier to install than a pair of hydrophones. Testing is in the early stages and will culminate with side-by-side hydrophone mounts.
2021 Objectives
The additional sensors planned for Semporna waters and the marine radar installation were delayed in 2020 due to Malaysian government Movement Control Orders. Here are the 2021 objectives:
Completion of the Semporna array. Only 3 of the 8 sensors planned for Semporna waters could be installed before the MCO was announced. The team was prepositioned in Semporna this January when another MCO was announced. All the equipment was reloaded for the 8+ hrs trip back to KK.
Install and integrate Anthropocene Marine Radar with camera. The radar is ready and can be shipped from Kuala Lumpur as soon as Sabah Parks permits. At this time all Sabah Marine Protected Areas remain closed and SP is only 30% staffed.
Continue to improve system reliability. Integrate new SST sensors currently in final development. With an inexpensive modification, the ShotSpotter ArtFusion sensor, the technology used for indoor gunshot detection, can be deployed as fish bomb detectors. They have the advantage of being smaller and requiring less power. And since they are based on the Beaglebone computer, they are modular. This opens the door to PoE, WiFi, and other convenient deployment modalities, widening our arsenal of capabilities to deploy in remote regions with sparse infrastructure.
Improve Hardware: Hydrophone failures and corrosion are the primary factors resulting in system down time. Better hydrophones and cables that can withstand marine environments for extended periods are required. We are working with DHI and Monterey Bay experts.
Drones: Our budget includes funding for a Drone, an operator, maintenance and insurance. Sabah Parks is excited about adding a drone to their arsenal of stopping fish bombing tools. Anthropocene Institute may consider donating a drone once we have the radar operational. Justyn Loo provided an excellent summary of drone capabilities needed.
Mobile Sensors: Test deployment of sensors and hydrophones from mobile platforms that includes Sabah Parks boats, dive boats and private boats. We are also investigating technologies of sinking buoys to develop small clandestine sensor platforms.
Wave Glider (WG): Wave power harvesting with 30 meter station keeping capability tweaked our interest in the Liquid Robotics WG for O&G application. University of Malaysia KL has chartered a WG for several weeks. We will ask to piggy-back the charter to test our sensor package provided we get confirmation that our sensor will fit into the payload.
In a more general sense, we will be reaching out to AUV and drone companies with the express intent of inviting them to demonstrate their technology in conjunctions with our array. We don’t want to get distracted, but money and support and technology that makes sense is what we are looking for.
Maintain current Sabah arrays and expand coverage by 50km2 or greater provided additional funds become available through the Blu Hope Sabah Fish Bomb Free / Plastic Neutral partnership,
Achieve “scalable state” capable of providing full operational array support in Sabah and other countries with fish bombing problems. We have been in discussions with Oceana Philippines to deploy our BlastSpotter arrays in their fish bombing hot spots.
Monterey Bay
Late in 2020 we became aware of a local environmental issue in California where fishers use small ‘Seal Crackers’ to scare away seals and sea lions which are robbing their nets of squid and anchovy. That use of seal bombs is permitted in the fisheries, but in fact the fishermen are using them to scare their catch into the nets, which is illegal. Many thousands of such blasts occur in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, one of the largest US marine sanctuaries - comparable in size to the Grand Canyon and cold upwelling provides an abundance of krill. The blasting is affecting whales which are either in transit or are also after the same catch. The size of the effect on the whales or other sea mammals is unknown but is actively under study, and our methods of locating blasts are expected to be most useful.
We are collaborating with various local agencies (NOAA, Naval PostGraduate School, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Middlebury Institute - Blue Ocean) who are interested in our capabilities. Several entities are listening for whale and blasting sounds. Additionally, Oceana with HQ in Washington DC and Geoff Schester the local Senior Oceana Scientist and California Campaign Director was key to connecting us with all the appropriate organizations. The Oceana chief scientist, Kathryn Matthews, had introduced us to Geoff before the seal bomb issue exploded into importance. Now she has reengaged and is interested in our Monterey Bay effort as well as connecting us with Oceana Philippines, as another tool in the Oceana toolkit to eradicate fish blasting.
The Cowan Family Foundation located in Atherton gave SFB USA a $5000 donation as an EII project contribution. We have dedicated this to our Monterey Bay initiative and informed them of this. We have contracted for a whale watching boat operated by an oceanographer out of Moss Landing. We prepared to place a sensor or two on the boat to listen to blasting offshore from there while a small fleet was catching anchovies. But just as we had finalized the plans, the fishers departed for Southern California. We remain on the alert for when fishing resumes. We are keeping in touch with the scientists who continue their whale monitoring from tagging or acoustically.
Promotional and Programmatic Events Through December 2020
We completed a highly successful Webinar in partnership with Blu Hope Sabah Fish Bomb Free (FBF)/Plastic Neutral Sabah Blue Day on 11/12 December 2020 https://bluhope.org/big-blue-day/. To be clear, FBF and Plastic Neutral Sabah are separate entities and will remain so, but we have a common goal: protecting Sabah oceans and its biodiversity. Our common goal is to make the Sabah coastline Fish Bomb Free by increasing blast detection sensors funded by donations and Plastic Neutral revenue. Check out the “ReWild Carbon / Plastic App “The Equalizer” Webinar in this series. ReWild is developing an App to monetize plastic that can be paid to the collector or donated to this cause.
Our website https://www.sfbusa.org and our operational partner’s site https://www.sfbmy.org provides additional information including one- and two-page information sheets and a quite well-produced Scubazoo 4-minute video https://www.sfbusa.org/blog/stop-fish-bombing-video showing the problem, our solution and containing an appeal from ‘Her Depthness’ Sylvia Earle and Nobel Peace Laureate Jorge Ramos Horta.
Saba Parks (SP) is fully engaged with SFB USA and SFB Malaysia, and in collaboration with Marine Law Enforcement agencies will support interdictions of our BlastSpotter alerts. SP requested a proposal from us to maintain the current system and to expand coverage to include other fish bombing hot spots to support the obvious necessity of countering fish blasts.
They are expecting the installation of an Anthropocene Institute donated marine radar with Camera to monitor their normal marine traffic in addition to our purpose of catching perpetrators at or leaving alert sites. They are also interested in drone interdiction.
SFB USA granted funds to the Semporna Islands Project – SIP, for Dr. Liz Grimwade and Jamie Ng team to survey, install and maintain the eastern BlastSpotter in the Tun Sakaran Marine Park (TSMP). SIP has been fully paid to complete the array and is only waiting for the restricted movement to end to complete the task.
Gary Lauder and Ralph Clark were briefed on our progress in June and September respectively and continue to support our work and to expand our efforts to other countries to fight the fish bombing problems.
The budget includes:
Operational costs to maintain the current array of 18 sensors (includes the 6 additional sensors in Semporna) and expansion of Sabah coastline coverage area of 50 km2 or up to 50 additional sensors (budgeted). This is to meet the Fish Bomb Free (FBF) Sabah goal to be Fish Bomb Free by 2031.
While Sensors are reliable and optimization continues - problems persist with marinization of hydrophones and corrosion. Constant maintenance or replacement of hydrophones and corrosion are primary issues causing array downtime. The low-cost approach has not worked. We will ask MBARI/DHI to help us find better hydrophones and cables that can withstand the marine environment for an extended period. This will be more expensive upfront but pay-off over time.