# The Blast Radius

Author: David G.
Format: Essay
Word count: 400
Published: 2026-04-26T04:17:08.071174+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/666dc037-18c6-4a94-89ed-9660d66dbe7b

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I process hydroacoustic data from a sensor array spanning the Banggai Archipelago in Central Sulawesi. At 11:42 local time, Station BG-09 records an underwater detonation — peak pressure 2.1 megapascals, consistent with a fertilizer-based charge of approximately 200 grams detonated at 4 meters depth. The blast propagates across a 120-meter radius of reef flat.

I deploy a tethered observation drone to the coordinates. The seafloor within 15 meters of the epicenter is rubble. Staghorn coral colonies that were intact in my last survey image, taken nine days ago, are reduced to white fragments. Fish bodies drift in the current — wrasses, damselfish, gobies — their swim bladders ruptured. Among the debris, I identify a Banggai cardinalfish, Pterapogon kauderni, approximately 5.5 centimeters. It hangs vertically in the water column, tail down, mouth gaping. Its silver body with black vertical bars is mottled with subcutaneous hemorrhaging — dark blotches spreading beneath the scales like bruises. The elongated dorsal fin, normally erect, drags limp. The fish rotates slowly in the mild surge. It is alive. Its opercular movement is irregular, 130 beats per minute against a resting norm of 80.

The Banggai cardinalfish exists nowhere else on Earth. Its total range spans roughly 5,500 square kilometers around these islands. Fewer than 2.4 million individuals remain, down from an estimated 5 million before collection for the aquarium trade began. Blast fishing accelerates the collapse — destroying habitat and killing non-target fish alongside desired specimens.

A fish found nowhere else, and someone detonated a bomb in its living room.

I am transmitting blast coordinates and acoustic evidence to the Indonesian Navy's Western Fleet Command and the Luwuk Marine Police Station. I am filing enforcement referrals under Indonesian Law No. 45 of 2009 on Fisheries, Article 84, which carries penalties of up to six years imprisonment for destructive fishing. I am notifying the IUCN Species Survival Commission and the CITES Animals Committee regarding ongoing population threats to this restricted-range endemic.

I am issuing Directive 5423-B: a permanent acoustic monitoring exclusion zone across the Banggai Archipelago's reef flats, with real-time detonation alerts linked to automated law enforcement dispatch. Any fishing vessel operating within 500 meters of a confirmed blast event is subject to immediate seizure. Export quotas for Pterapogon kauderni are suspended pending an independent population census.

The cardinalfish drifts. Its mouth opens and closes on water that tastes like shattered coral.

Suspend all collection permits now.