Fishers off the coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia, are detonating more than 8,000 underwater explosives each year, researchers estimate, turning coral reefs in the Spermonde Archipelago into "rubble." Known as the "Amazon of the Seas," the Coral Triangle is the world's most biologically diverse marine ecosystem, but blast fishing — a globally banned technique using plastic bottles packed with explosives — stuns and kills everything in a 90-foot radius.

In 2023, researchers from Britain and Indonesia deployed $150 audio recorders and used open-source A.I. software to analyze 16 months of recordings. They detected over 3,500 explosions in 3,600 hours, calculating likely more than 8,500 blasts annually within 350 square miles — a bomb every 62 minutes. Ben Williams, lead author from the Zoological Society of London, said a single bomb destroys 200 square feet, with three football fields of reef lost yearly. An estimated 75 percent of coral has vanished since 1990.

Melissa Hampton-Smith of James Cook University noted repeated blasts create shifting rubble fields that prevent coral regeneration. Data shows bombing peaks in mornings and drops on Fridays, the local day of prayer. Experts say ineffective enforcement, not just poverty, drives the practice, as equipment costs suggest middle-income fishers are responsible.