In 1992, the artisanal canoe fishers within a year could catch 35 tons of fish a year. In 2016/17, they were catching about 15 tons a year which is a sharp decline. And this is not peculiar to artisanal fishers. There is much evidence that certain fish stocks have completely gone extinct.
For example, artisanal fishers have over 14,000 canoes that are fishing in Ghanaian waters. But then not more than 9,000 vessels are required in the waters. So, Ghana has in excess of 5,000 plus canoes that are fishing in its waters. This is actually a problem and to compound this problem they are competing with these same stocks they are catching.
They normally catch the ones on the surface of the water like the anchovies, sardines and mackerel and these are the same stock the trawlers are targeting as their Saiko ( term used in Ghana to refer to the transfer or ‘transhipment’ of fish at sea from industrial trawlers ) meanwhile, they are not registered to catch these species that are free-flowing on the surface and mid-waters. They are licensed to catch bottom-dwelling species which are called the missile stock but they leave that or catch that and on top of it catch the ones supposed to be caught by artisanal vessels.
According to Prof Akpalu, “the main problem in our fisheries sector is the lack of political will to do the right things because we know the problems and we have been talking about this for a long time. The will to implement some of these policies that we have always recommended is our problem. If trawlers violate fishing regulations, for instance, we give them the option of either going to the courts or going to seek an alternative dispute resolution (ADR). And at ADR, the minister has so many powers and at the end of the day, he exercises an unfitted discretion on how much the trawler should pay.”
Laxity in the enforcement of the law
Most of the fishermen we spoke to in our investigations believe the challenge has to do with the enforcement of the country’s laws.
“This is why we have become an attractive place for foreign vessels that are just going around and looking for money. It will continue to be so when our punishments are not deterrent enough”, Adjetey Tawia asserted.
The way forward
To help salvage the situation in the fisheries sector of the economy, Prof Akpalu makes the following recommendations.
He suggested that “to be able to see what happens in the trawlers, authorised video (monitoring system) devices should be placed in all trawlers. This would show what types of fish they are catching and in what quantities.
“We should, with immediate effect, do away with the ADR option for foreign vessels, or if we should have ADR at all, they should be mandated not to set fines below the minimum that the court would have fined an individual who engages in illegality.
“We should have ways of verifying whether those fronting for the trawler vessels are true owners of it or not. We should do it in such a way that if the hire purchase is for five years, at the end of the fifth year, the vessels are owned by the Ghanaian or confiscated by the state. If this is done well, we will have only Ghanaian vessels fishing in our waters. They will obey the rules and regulations and once we get the industrial trawlers in check, the artisanal fishermen will have no reason not to obey the rules and regulations,” according to the Fisheries Economist
He added that the “government should stop subsidising premix fuel and use the money to support the artisanal fishing industry or communities by providing alternative livelihood empowerment for the youth.
“Oil Marketing Companies should be encouraged to set up fuel stations within the fishing communities to sell premix fuel at market rate and make sure it is always available by creating an enabling environment for private investors,” he opined.
Chief Fisherman at the Tema Newtown Canoe Basin, Nii Odametey and his council members reiterated calls on the Ghanaian government to adequately resource the Ghanaian Navy and marine police so they can effectively protect the waters and ward off the industrial trawlers who illegally fish in Ghanaian waters.
“We are of the view that poaching from foreign industrial trawlers which is a contributory factor to the depletion of fish stocks makes nonsense of the implementation by the sector ministry of the closed season which is meant to replenish stocks,” the fishermen told the team during focus group engagements.
Speaking to the issue, the Chief Fisherman in Cape Coast, Kobina Kakraba believes there were about 100 foreign vessels operating in Ghanaian seas. “When they see us, they run to the Ivorian border pretending to be working there and still bringing the catch here. When they see the navy is operating on the seas, they flee but once the navy leaves, they hurriedly return to do their illegal activities. Most of the trawler vessels belong to the Chinese. I believe that it is some ‘big’ men in the country who are behind their operations. Our own people are involved and it disturbs our work on the seas. The industrial trawlers are really disturbing us, they fish at places they are not supposed to,” Kobina Kakra lamented. He urged the government to sack all of the trawlers from Ghanaian waters.
The organizer of the canoe and fishing gear owners association in Tema, Adjetey Tawia, bemoans how illegal activities are affecting artisanal fishing. According to him, the trawlers target some particular fishes, if their nets get hold of the fishes they are not interested in, they discard them back into the sea. This activity pollutes the sea.
Fish production
The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development 2020 Annual Progress report shows a total domestic fish production of 471,794.79 metric tons (mt) in 2020 as against a year target of 562,063.82 mt.
Though the actual domestic fish production for 2020 fell short of the target by 16.1 percent, it was an improvement on that of 2018 (452,679.30) and 2019 (465,700.03). The total domestic production figures show a general increasing trend of 2.6 percent for the past three years with a decline of 0.09 percent between 2018 and 2019 and 0.49 percent between 2019 and 2020.
Domestic fish production is from three main sources namely marine, inland capture fisheries and aquaculture sub-sectors. The marine sub-sector contribution to domestic fish production in 2020 was 326,867.56 mt as against a target of 347,754.11 mt, a shortfall of 6 percent.
Analysis of the marine production figures from 2017 to 2020 shows a relatively increasing production trend of 4.6 percent. (This may be partly due to the overexploitation of marine fishery resources resulting from illegal fishing activities, climate change, and increased fishing efforts among others)
The contribution of inland capture fisheries mainly from the Volta Lake in 2020 was 80,923.18 mt representing 17.2 percent of domestic fish production for the year.
A comparative analysis of the inland capture fisheries production for 2019 and 2020 shows a decrease in production level by 0.3 percent. It is noted from the data that aquaculture production for 2019 and 2020 fell below the production figure for 2018 by 31.68 percent and 16.47 percent respectively.
It is also noted that even though aquaculture production for 2020 showed a 22.3 percent increase over that of 2019, the target of 129,302.00 mt for the year was not met.
During the year (2020), a total of 193,226.87 mt of fish were imported to augment domestic fish production/supply to meet domestic fish requirements for the year, while total fish export was 69,152.43 mt. Fish imported are mostly low-valued but high-quality fish such as chub mackerel, horse mackerel and sardinella to offset the deficit in domestic fish production. Exported fish products include canned and raw tuna, frozen demersal fish, and dried and smoked fish.
The total fish supply for 2020 was 595,869.23 mt, which showed a shortfall of 12.1 percent against a target of 677,785.38 mt.
Commenting on the situation, Prof Akpalu says Ghana’s own local laws, the Fisheries Act 625 2002 and all the laws in the books do not permit foreigners to operate industrial trawlers in Ghana.
“The implication is that they fish in such a way that they destroy a whole ecological system, it destroys the ability of the system to produce more fish because when they fish using certain destructive techniques it destroys the benthic flow of the ocean and that leads to the environmental carrying capacity or the ability of the ocean to produce more fish for us.” Prof Akpalu says.
For an industry that plays a major role in sustainable livelihoods in several households and communities in Ghana, the fisheries sector must earn equal attention as others with regard to Beneficial Ownership.
It is hoped that Ghanaian authorities will step up their game.
This article is the result of investigations undertaken by the following journalists: Isaac Aidoo (The Finder), Kizito Cudjoe (B&FT), Emmanuel Wiafe Aboagye (Asaase Radio), Alberta Bissue Ansong (Metro TV), Adnan Adams (newsguideonline.com) and Prince Appiah (Multimedia).
