Surveillance and control of fishing weak on the seas

Accra, Dec.15, GNA - Weak national control, surveillance and enforcement of existing fishery laws is leading to the use of unauthorised fishing methods on the sea, Programme Co-ordinator of Friends of the Nation (FON) said on Tuesday.

Mr. Kyei Kwadwo Yamoa said: "Light aggregation of fishing, illegal pair trawling and the use of prohibited fishing gears and chemicals are as a result of the limitation of the Fishery Commission (FC)," he said.

Mr. Yamoa made this known at a press briefing in Accra, organised by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) to raise concerns about the problems facing the fishery industry.

He identified climatic change as one of the factors that could blight the potentials of fishing in Ghana as climate could trigger reduction in fish stock,distribution of individual species and the altering of the distribution centres of fish production.

"The effects of climatic change such as increase in sea temperature, change in salinity,alteration in ocean current and increase in sea level will have negative impact on the fisheries," he said.

Mr. Yamoah stressed that the offshore nature of Ghana's oil and gas posed a serious threat to the fishing industry as emerging issues such as restricted fishing zones, increase in sea traffic, oil pollution and spillage and other related issues revealed that fishing might be negatively affected by the oil and gas exploration.

"One issue that contributes to insecurity and strife in the oil host communities is the situation where communities live in poverty due to the collapse of livelihood while there is commercial exploration of oil," he noted. He stated that there were many inadequacies in the Fishery Regulation bill before parliament such as inadequate consultation with the stake holders especially the fisher folks and civil society organisations for their inputs.

He explained that effective management of fishery resources could be realized through collective responsibility between the state, agencies and communities who derive their livelihood from it.

Mr. Yamoah said the draft regulation lacked provision for marine biodiversity conservation on close seasons marine protected areas. He called on the Fishery Commission to withdraw the Fishery Regulation from parliament and conduct extensive consultation with the stakeholders to provide the proper legal atmosphere for the sector.

Mr. Yamoah said the fishery commission should be adequately resourced to effectively handle Monitoring Surveillance and Control (MSC) and develop the capacity of the fisher folks and provide incentives to promote responsible fishing.

He said government must as matter of urgency reactivate the Community Based Fisheries Management committees and enforce the ban on pair trawling. When the Ghana News Agency contacted the Fishery Commission on the concerns of FON, Mr. George Hutchful Deputy Director of FC said the NGO was right to say that the MSC was weak, his outfit lacked the equipment and adequate skilled staff to be able to patrol the sea.

He said the Fishery Act was passed by parliament in 2003, but the regulation was yet to be sent to parliament for public and parliamentary inputs.

"The newly constituted FC board is busy reviewing the document and will be completed soon," he stressed.

Mr. Hutchful explained that before the drilling of oil started in the Western Region, the Environmental Impact Assessment team came out with the environmental effects of the oil exploration in the area but could not capture into details issues on fishery.

He added that government had contracted two consulting firms who were working on the impact of the oil find on fishery.