Fish-Bombing: Recipe for Destruction

In south east Asia, many blast fishermen use home-made explosive to produce their bombs. The ingredients, Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer and Fuel Oil are readily obtainable and easily mixed to produce a high explosive called ANFO. For a small bomb with a lethal range (for fish) of about 10m or so they use about 500g of ANFO packed into a glass bottle. The bottles are often weighted with a stone so that they gain sufficient depth before detonation. Larger bombs are constructed from many bottles tied to a ballast or by using larger containers. Elsewhere in the region there are reports of the use of construction ordinance and land mines as the explosives.



			Recipe for Destruction! In south east Asia, many blast fishermen use home-made explosive to produce their bombs. The ingredients, Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer and Fuel Oil are readily obtainable and easily mixed to produce a high explosive called ANFO. For a small bomb with a lethal range (for fish) of about 10m or so they use about 500g of ANFO packed into a glass bottle. The bottles are often weighted with a stone so that they gain sufficient depth before detonation. Larger bombs are constructed from many bottles tied to a ballast or by using larger containers. Elsewhere in the region there are reports of the use of construction ordinance and land mines as the explosives.
							High-explosive caps are required to detonate ANFO and these must be inserted through the top of a bottle through a rubber bung or cork acting as a seal. Fuse wire is used to set off the detonator caps and allow a time delay from ignition so that the fishermen can paddle to a safe distance.

			Setting the Explosion... The bombs are dropped or thrown away from the fisherman who then paddles to a safer area. The boats used by fishermen are strong enough to withstand the shock wave from a nearby explosion. If the explosion is shallow the water surface can be seen to be cavitated in the region around the blast by the shock wave and its reflection from the water surface. Deeper blasts generate a large gas bubble which then rises to the surface.