The Centre for Maritime Law and Security (CEMLAWS) Africa working with The Center for Coastal Management (CCM) of the University of Cape Coast has launched the “Promoting Local Capacity to Address the Destabilizing Impact of Foreign Distant Vessels” project.

The project, funded by the US State Department and coordinated by the US Embassy in Ghana, is being implemented in 7 countries namely Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Mauritania.

Ahead of the project implementation, stakeholders in the fisheries governance space including government officials, industry, non-governmental organizations, academia, and media have participated in a webinar to discuss the action plan of the project.

The Team Lead at CEMLAWS Africa, Dr. Kamal-Deen Ali, explained that the project seeks to bring to light the negative effects of foreign distant vessel activities on the fisheries sector and work with key stakeholders especially governments to mitigate them.

The industry however also argued that other governance and technical issues pose dire implications on the fisheries sector thus also needing equal attention.
Secretary of the National Fisheries Association of Ghana, Rochester Nii Armah Amarfio indicated that the cost of finance has become a major bane for industrial fishermen to stay competitive.

He intimated the reluctance of the banking sector to support industrial fishing activities, which is a very capital-intensive venture “because they have no idea what goes on in fishing.” As such he called on the government to intervene.