The Sabah State Government has declared war on so-called 'fish terrorists' who use home-made bombs to catch marine fish.
These fishermen fill a bottle with a mix of ammonium nitrate, sulphur, diesel and detonator. Once thrown into the war, the device quickly kills all fish within the target area.
Each explosion can destroy an area of 1,000sq m, and if left unchecked, the bombs would cost millions of ringgit to the Malaysian fishing industry.
Sabah's Director of Fisheries, Rayner Datuk Stuel Galid, told the Daily Express: "You can imagine how many tonnes of coral are destroyed by a single explosion, and the growth rate of these corals is so slow, about an inch a year."
Last year, his department conducted 434 enforcement operations on land, including 86 that were conducted on an ad hoc basis.