Cape Coast,- The Government of Ghana and other regulators in the fishing industry have been urged to flush out the canker of Illegal Unreported Unregulated (IUU) fishing in the four coastal areas across the country.
“Addressing the issue of IUUs in fishing must be the most prioritized item listed on the itinerary of the Government and all other regulators because the activity is highly destructive and posed a danger to the fisheries sector,’’ Mr Isaac Nana Kweigyah, the National President of Canoe and Fishing Gear Owners Association of Ghana (CaFGOAG), emphasised.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Monday in Cape Coast, the President of the fishers’ association said, in the early 2000s, artisanal fishers on their own opposed light fishing, the use of dynamites, explosives, chemicals and monofilament nets and took measures to halt the practice because they saw the need to help the recovery process of the sector.
However, fishers could not sustain their efforts and eventually allowed IUUs in the system again because the Government and all other stakeholders were not complementing their efforts.
Mr Nana Kweigyah indicated that the story would have been different today if the Marine Police and the Fisheries Commission had seen the need to take up IUU issues and actively combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
On the way forward, he charged all, especially the Commission to step up its game and act on its mandate if not clear IUU fishing at once and create a visible development that would affect fishery recovery.
Speaking on insufficient premix fuel supply, the National President, said if care were not taken, a black market for the commodity would resurface once demand exceeded supply, adding that the distribution, sale and supply of premix fuel were being overly politicised.
‘’Selection of the landing beach committee members is done on party lines, so party people take charge of the fuel at the local level and decide on who must and who must not get fuel, this is creating serious issues of supply or distribution,’’ he said.
On the price, he said for very good reasons, the Government had subsidised the price of premix fuel, outboard motors, nets and other fishing inputs because it understood the plight of artisanal fishers and the need to support them.
However, he noted that some fishing groups have recently called for the increase of the premix fuel which currently sells at GHC7.30 pesewas to be sold at GHC10.
“I think this will impoverish artisanal fishers and make canoe owners accumulate debts because fishers’ now go on expeditions with little or no catch at all which waste fuel’ adding that premix fuel was a key input in artisanal fishing.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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