Government should be resolute in banning illegal fishing

Axim (W/R), May 31, GNA - Nana Kofi Bentsil, Chief fisherman in Axim, has urged the government to be resolute in banning illegal fishing in the Ghanaian waters as it being done with illegal mining (galamsey).

He said the issue of light fishing for example needed to be tackled holistically within all fishing communities.

He said 'Saiko' fishing, a practice mostly engaged in by foreigners, especially the Chinese who practice transshipment on the sea should be stopped.

Saiko operators go beyond license fishing into doing unauthorised fishing and catching fishes that were not supposed to be harvested.

The local fishermen who do light fishing blame Saiko fishing practitioners for not allowing the fishes to swim over to their catchment areas where they could get enough to net.

Nana Bentsil said while he and his colleagues in the Half-Assini, Dixcove and Axim areas had agreed to do away with light fishing, their counterparts in Sekondi and elsewhere were still practicing it.

This he said was attracting fingerlings, which was depleting the sea of fish stock.

Light fishing exposes the fishes to dangerous chemicals since it involves the use of lights to attract the fishes in the sea, and blasting them with carbide and dynamite to disturb their habitation to attract them into their nets.

Such chemicals which the fishes are exposed to are said to be dangerous to both human health and the fishes as it could lead to cancer.

During an interaction with the Axim chief fisherman, members of the Axim fishing Committee, fishermen, fish processors and fish mongers, in Axim, Nana Bentsil said he found the ban on light fishing worrying.

The interactions formed part of a three-day educational tour to selected Fish Landing Beaches in the Western, Central, Volta and Greater Accra Regions by journalists.

It was under a capacity building programme for journalists in fisheries and environmental issues to ensure effective reportage, and organised by the Centre for Coastal Management of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) under a USAID/UCC Fisheries and Coastal Management Capacity Building.

Nana Bentsil said issues about fishing should not be politicized.

"Fishing should not be politicized, rather, there should be extensive engagement between fishermen, government and other stakeholders in designing programmes that will help address issues confronting the fishing sector," Nana Bentsil said.

He asked the government to strengthen the institution of local authorities so that they could better implement the customary and traditional laws to help sanitise the fishing sector.

The Chief Fisherman said since most of the Axim fishermen were involved in marine fishing, they needed to be provided with proper fishing gear to encourage them to do away with the use of unauthorised fishing nets, among others.

He expressed the need to provide alternative livelihoods to fishermen in Axim during the closed season so that they could support the initiative that would go a long way to benefit the sector and the country in general.

He said the fishers could also be assisted to pay for a fishing pond to operate aquaculture during the closed fishing season, to enable them earn a living.

GNA

By Lydia Asamoah/Elsie Appiah-Osei, GNA