The Canoe and Fishing Gear Owners Association of Ghana (CaFGOAG) has launched a nationwide campaign against the harvesting of juvenile fishes and the use of explosives and obnoxious chemicals in fishing in the country.
The Association is of the view that despite the efforts of the Ministry of Fisheries and Aqua Culture Development and the Fisheries Commission as well as other stakeholders, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing continues to be the bane of Ghanas’ fisheries sector.
Last year, the European Commission issued a yellow card to Ghana which is the second to be received by the country on her failure to tackle IUU fishing, and warned that the country risk being identified as a non-cooperating country in the fight against IUU fishing.
It is in light of this that the Association says it has come up with this initiative to buttress the effort of government and relevant stakeholders in the fight against what is said to be a threat to the fishing industry.
Speaking to ATLFMMNEWS after the launch of the project, the National President of the Association, Nana Kweigyah said a new management plan is being instituted from 2022 to 2026 to ensure compliance on illegal, unreported, and unregulated.
He said the procurement of the sea patrol boats to undertake patrols and the replacement of unapproved nets with the sanctioned nets for fishing will support the ministry’s quest of solving the myriad of issues facing the fisheries sector
Besides the campaign launch, he said a regional task force has been put in place for the Western, Central, Greater Accra, and Volta regions with the mandate to visit every fishing community to engage with them.
However, at the community level, he indicated that a community IUU monitoring group is also being formed to continually engage the fishers to help sustain engagement at the local level.
“The anti-IUU group will also monitor the fishers and report offenders to appropriate authorities for action. They are also going to track the sale of these chemicals and explosives so that we can identify the sales point and act accordingly,” he hinted.
He, therefore, urged the fishing community to get involved in this campaign to ensure its success.
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Source: Rosemond Asmah/ATLFMNEWS
