New law against illegal fishing to be operational in 2018 – Fisheries ministry

The Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Elizabeth Afoley Quaye has said that Ghana’s fishing law is currently under review and is expected to be operational within the first quarter of 2018.

This comes on the back of the high rise in illegal fishing activities coupled with unacceptable fishing methods.

In recent times, overuse of unlawful fishing methods and poaching have caused Ghana’s fish stock to decline rapidly resulting in the country losing millions of dollars each year.

In an interview with Citi Business News at the sidelines of this year’s World Ocean Day celebration, Madam Quaye said the amended law will help sanitize the fishing industry once approved by Parliament.

“The fisher law is in bits and pieces, with the amendments, LIs and the rest so we have found it necessary to put together all the laws into one, we are also seeing a lot of other amendments that we need to do so we are capturing all this into one and we are almost done,” she said.

“So by December this year the draft will be out and then we will be taken through stakeholder consultations by early 2018 the draft bill will go to parliament and then it will be passed,” she assured.

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