Deputy Director of Fisheries at the Fisheries Commission, Emmanuel Kwame Dovlo, has disclosed that his outfit is embarking on a number of initiatives aimed at restoring the fisheries sector to sustainability and conformance to international regulations.
Speaking on the Eye on Port Programme, following the recent threat from the European Union to ban fish from Ghana, Mr. Dovlo, revealed that with help from the EU, strategies are been deployed to combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.
“Over the past four weeks, officials have embarked on tours to sensitize fishers on the repercussions on IUU fishing. We are also going to activate Ghana-EU IUU working group to draw timelines to tackle the issues raised,” he revealed.
The Deputy Director of Fisheries said this is in addition to existing initiatives being undertaken such as reactivation of the vessel monitoring system, the deployment of observers on industrial vessels as well as the collaboration with the Ghana Navy and Marine Police to strengthen monitoring of fishing activity on sea.
He said, “we try to gather intelligence to ensure that wherever illegal fishing is going on, we move in. We are monitoring the canoes as well as efforts we have already put in to control the trawl fishing.”
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According to him, the observance of close season schedules within the artisanal and industrial fishing sector is also a key intervention government has been implementing to harness aquaculture development.
Mr. Dovlo admitted to the unacceptable canoe to fish stock ratio, which is over-burdening the sector, adding that measures have been put in place to mitigate this phenomenon.
He revealed that, “one area we have identified is the intervention of the canoe ID card where we expect it to come to gradually face off the open access practice so that we can cap the number of users.”
He disclosed that very soon the Fisheries Commission will issue a directive to enforce the use of prescribed trawl gear in order to end juvenile catch.
The Deputy Director at the Fisheries Commission said, in addition to ongoing sensitization programs across coastal areas, his outfit will help fisherfolk manage their resources to make compliance easier.
