Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (MoFAD), Mavis Hawa Koomson has revealed that about 77 per cent of the total registered 76 trawlers operating in the country’s waters have been denied license renewals for failing to meet seaworthiness requirements.
Speaking at the 2023 Ocean Conference in Panama this month, Madam Koomson disclosed that only 25 trawlers out of the registered 76 have received seaworthiness licenses and are currently fishing. The remaining 51 have been banned from fishing in the country’s waters.
The government published a guideline in July of last year outlining the gear requirements for commercial fishing trawlers and other vessels. The instruction also calls for maintaining the security of ships traveling through Ghana.
Little pelagic fish should not be caught, and young fish should be allowed to escape through nets in order to replace the populations that are currently being depleted.
The Minister stated that in order to preserve the benefits, measures are being finalized to ensure that all industrial trawlers and tuna vessels licensed in Ghana are employing electronic monitoring systems. A pilot program will begin in June of this year.
Due to its capacity to thwart national and regional efforts to conserve and manage fish supplies, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing continues to be one of the biggest dangers to Ghana’s marine ecosystems.
