Articles by Matt Blomberg

Matt Blomberg is an Australian investigative journalist who has written extensively about human trafficking and maritime crime in Southeast Asia. Based in Cambodia, he is currently making a documentary film about illegal fishing and the violence and corruption it spawns. He prefers chasing stories where he can get himself dirty.

Trapang Ropov community members load a concrete pillar onto a raft.

‘Mud, muck and death’: Cambodia’s plan to obstruct trawlers and revive local fishing

by Matt Blomberg 27 July 2023

TRAPANG ROPOV, Cambodia — Trudging through a tangle of mangrove roots and muddy water, Taing Kry grimaced and howled as he and a partner shifted the weight of a 120-kilogram…

Koh Rong Sanloem, one of seven islands that make up Cambodia’s new Koh Rong Marine National Park. Photo by Wikirictor via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Cambodia creates its first marine national park where pirate fishers prowl

by Matt Blomberg 12 March 2018

In February, Cambodia announced the establishment of its very first marine national park, covering 524 square kilometers (202 square miles) in the Gulf of Thailand. But the declaration does nothing…

A local volunteer plants a mangrove sapling at the Trapeang Sangke inlet. The best time for transplanting is July, the peak of the wet season when the estuary is least salty. With a full team of volunteers, 4,000 saplings get transplanted in the most productive months. Photo by Matt Blomberg for Mongabay.

Mega developments set to transform a tranquil Cambodian bay

by Matt Blomberg 31 January 2018

KAMPOT, Cambodia — As the Trapeang Sangke estuary opens up into the Gulf of Thailand, the dense green mangroves that line its edges taper off in stages, from thick, full-grown…

Members of the Kep provincial government and Fisheries Administration set fire to a mound of banned fishing gear in July 2015. The gear had been confiscated over a period of months from Cambodian and Vietnamese vessels operating illegally in Kep Bay, and was burned in front of a village notorious for abusing the law and the sea. Photo courtesy of MCC.

Building a refuge where trawlers now ravage Cambodia’s marine life

by Matt Blomberg 14 December 2017

KEP ARCHIPELAGO, Cambodia – It’s not long before midnight and an outlaw trawler has been spotted. The captain — a weather-gnarled old fisherman wearing just boxer shorts — winces as…