(Recasts with comments on type of bomb, pvs JAKARTA)

SURABAYA, Indonesia, Aug 11 (Reuters) - A powerful explosion that killed two people and injured four in Indonesia's East Java province on Saturday may have been caused by a bomb used to catch fish, a provincial police chief said.

The blast ripped through several houses in Pasuruan, a coastal town about 70 km (43 miles) east of the country's second-largest city of Surabaya.

"At the moment we suspect that it was a fish bomb," Provincial police chief Herman Sumawiredja told Metro TV, adding that there had been similar such incidents in the area before.

He said police were looking for the son-in-law of one of the victims who made bombs for fishermen.

Using explosives to catch fish is common practice in Indonesia, even though it is illegal.

Separately, the police chief in Pasuruan said it had not been determined whether the blast was caused by a bomb or whether there was any link to terrorism.

"We can't say yet if it's related to terrorism. This is a very powerful explosion because it left a 30 cm (1 foot)-deep crater," police chief Syafrial Achyar told reporters.

"Body parts of the victims were thrown as far as 40 metres (yards)," he said, adding that the head of one of the victims had been blow off.

Indonesia has suffered a wave of bombings blamed on Islamic militants linked to the Jemaah Islamiah militant group in recent years.

(Additional reporting by Telly Nathalia in Jakarta)

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