The Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Elizabeth Naa Afoley Quaye has warned fishermen on the closed fishing season insisting that she will not compromise on the ban next season.

She’s asked fishermen to be prepared for the season next year.

The Ministry had to bow to resistance by fisherfolk who argued that wide consultations were not done before the announcement of the closed season this year.

The ban, which would have taken effect from August 7 to September 4, 2018 will now be implemented in 2019, the Minister said.

The closed season was meant for all fleets comprising canoes, Inshore Boats and trawlers.

Addressing the fisherfolk on Friday, Madam Afoley Quaye said the Ministry won’t tolerate such excuses from the fishermen next year.

“…So I’m telling you again, that next year prepare your minds that we’re closing the season. We are doing it next year…We cannot do the closed season in the minor upwelling, we’ll do the closed season in the major upwelling.”

n estimated 13,000 artisanal canoes, 80 Ghanaian flagged trawlers and 300 semi-industrial boats are said to be on Ghana waters. Although fishing is very high, the catch had been extremely low.

 

Background

When the Minister announced the ban in July, she said the closed season was not going to be a one-off process and that it was going to continue year by year until Ghana’s fishing stock improved.

She therefore appealed to fisher folks to sacrifice a little to save the fishing industry and also save them from complaining of low catch.

Madam Afoley Quaye recounted that over the past two decades, the fisheries sector had seen a massive decline and it appeared that Ghana’s marine was heading towards “a total collapse.”

She said one of the reasons why Ghana reached that stage was the fact that, there was weak governance in the fishing sector and so there was need to salvage the situation within three years.

“Our fisheries governance mechanisms had not been able to match and stamp out the multi-faceted illegal unreported and unregulated fish practices such as use of lights for fishing and obnoxious chemical harvest among others.”

With additional files from GNA