The Central Regional Director of the Fisheries Commission, Mr. Kwame Damoah has disclosed the commission’s plan to place a 3-year moratorium on new entrants of canoes into the country’s ocean.
According to him, the moratorium is deemed necessary to curtail the alarming rate of the number of fishing canoes operating on Ghana’s sea and its implications.
Mr. Damoah said the fisheries commission’s recent survey revealed that the number of canoes operating on the region’s sea has far exceeded the nine thousand eight hundred required number.
As such he believes this exercise forms part of the many measures instituted by the fisheries commission to replenish the already depleted pelagic fish stock.
“What I want to say is that for the 2022 canoe frame survey that we did, we realized that the number of canoes is just around 12,805, which is on the higher side. The sea should be able to take between 9000 and then 9800 canoes. That should be able to take up with our sea. So, the numbers are up for now. We are about to register the remaining ones that are yet to be constructed” he continued.
Mr. Damoah was speaking to selected journalists at a two-day workshop on small pelagic fisheries reporting organized by Hen Mpoano which is a non-for-profit organization aimed at providing technical, policy, and extension support for coastal communities, through capacity building, research in fisheries and coastal ecosystem governance.
Ghana’s fishery sector contributes significantly to the national development agenda of the country by providing food and nutrition security, employment, and foreign exchange earnings.
However, unfortunately, the small pelagic resources, notably the sardinella, are nearing depletion and an annual landing has also been declining for more than a decade, despite increased efforts.
This continuous drop in landings is mostly attributed to overfishing and overcapacity of the fishing fleet and has therefore necessitated the institution to adopt several management measures including ending open access, closed season, increased net mesh size, and the moratorium to reduce fishing vessels.
Mr. Kwame Damoah hinted that the fisheries commission will carry out the moratorium exercise with other security agencies adding that unregistered fishing vessels will not be permitted to operate Ghana’s sea.
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Source: Eric Sekyi/ATLFMNEWS
