Cheap microphones count the bombs hitting Indonesia's reefs
Some three-quarters of the coral around Indonesia's Spermonde Archipelago died between 1990 and 2022, mostly from blast fishing. Researchers there used low-cost underwater microphones and an algorithm that runs on a laptop to count the explosions, and verified nearly 3,570 blasts, an average of 23 a day. An outside scientist told Mongabay that coastal communities and NGOs could copy the method with relative ease to gather their own evidence.Some three-quarters of the coral around Indonesia's Spermonde Archipelago died between 1990 and 2022, mostly from blast fishing. Researchers there used low-cost underwater microphones and an algorithm that runs on a laptop to count the explosions, and verified nearly 3,570 blasts, an average of 23 a day. An outside scientist told Mongabay that coastal communities and NGOs could copy the method with relative ease to gather their own evidence.Expert summary pending. Showing the newcomer version.