Journalists to gov’t: Your support to fishermen less useful

A group of journalists committed to promoting sustainable fisheries and environment through effective reportage, has hit hard at the government calling its support to fishermen as being “less useful.”

According to the group, some industrial trawlers continue to operate in the territorial waters of Ghana with wanton disregard for the Ghanaian fisheries laws.

This situation, the group, known as Journalists for Responsible Fisheries and Environment (JRFE), noted, has adversely affected livelihoods.

These concerns by the journalists were contained in a statement signed and issued by Mr Kingsley Nana Buadu, Executive Director of JRFE.

According to the statement, illegal trans-shipment, which is commonly known as “Saiko,” has become a major threat to the jobs and food security of the fishing communities, and Ghana’s economy in general.

Some of the trawlers, JRFE stated, “have been, and are still, engaging in the trans-shipment of fish at sea, which the country’s fisheries laws forbid.”

“The worrying aspect is that, they target species meant to be caught by local fishers, freeze them, and then resell to the fishermen for profit,” JRFE noted.

In view of its eminent existential threat, the journalists have called on the government to end all forms of illegal trans-shipment to protect the livelihoods of artisanal fishers.

Meanwhile, the JRFE lauded government for its immense support to fishermen across the country with logistics such as subsidised outboard motors and premix fuel.

However, the JRFE noted that the same initiative by the government would be less useful if the illegal activities were not checked.

It is instructive to note that the Fisheries Act 2002, Act 625 Section 132, and the Fisheries Regulations 2010 (Regulation 33), clearly prohibit Saiko operations.

However, this illegality, which undermines the government’s efforts to better the lives of local fishers through fishing, continues to wreak havoc on the fishing community.

Though fishing, as an occupation, serves as a source of livelihood for over 2.7 million Ghanaians, past and successive government have always paid lip service to ending the “Saiko” menace.

In 2019, a fisheries scientist, Professor Kobina Yankson, warned that Ghana was likely to lose fish stocks in the near future in its marine waters.

Professor Yankson envisaged that the situation was likely to put food security and goals for the economic growth and poverty reduction in fishing communities at risk.

However, trans-shipment activities, Saiko, which have been identified as the major threat that has depleted our fish stock, continue to exist.

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