Tuna Association: Reduce fuel prices for fishing vessels

Reduce fuel prices for fishing vessels, Mr. Frank Aihoon, President of the Ghana Tuna Association (GTA) has launched an appeal to the government.

He said fuel should be made a little cheaper for the fishing vessel operators just as it pertained in some other West African countries citing that in Senegal fuel for vessels sells at USD$800 per metric, and those in Ghana, buy theirs at about USD$1,200 which he described as too costly

He also called on the government to support fishing vessel operations and ensure that fishing vessel operators are supplied with fuel at a reduced price and not what is on the market.

The GTA President in an interview in Tema said tuna vessels were in dire need of support as the cost of operation has increased astronomically due to the high cost of fuel.

Mr Aihoon said apart from other expenditure, the vessels, especially the tuna ones used a lot of fuel to move around during fishing.

“Unlike trawlers, in tuna fishing, you have to search for the fish before you can catch them, meaning you have to use a lot of fuel moving around until you found their location,” he said.

The GTA President said due to climate change, the fish have moved far meaning, more fuel must be used by the tuna vessels for days before locating them.

He said that due to the high cost of managing the vessels, out of the over 20 licensed pole and line vessels in Ghana, only six were currently in operation while the rest have been scrapped.

He explained that pole and line fishing involves locating the fish, putting bait into the sea to attract them, and then fishing them one after the other.

Mr. Aihoon said vessels, therefore, first have to catch fish that would be used as bait to catch the tuna, as according to him most of the time, the ones they bought from the canoes had gone bad before they sell making it difficult to be used as bait as the tuna moved away from it when it’s in a bad state.

This he said add to their cost, further saying due to the high cost of food, a vessel that often has a crew between 24 and 32 needed about GHs80,000.00 worth of food for just one trip.

—CDA Consult || Contributor