The Fisheries Ministry has revoked the licenses of some 14 vessels from operating in Ghana waters.
The Ministry says the 14 vessels breached the country’s fishing laws.
Deputy Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister, Moses Anim says the move is best for the country.
“We are saying that they should have taken authorisation before leaving so the Fisheries Commission is engaging, and we are saying they should put up their transcoding so that we can know where they are so long as they are in Ghana’s waters so that we know their activities. Also, we have to label them as IEU vessels and use their IMO number which they cannot change as we label them as IEU vessels.”
Ghana’s fishing industry employs over 2.7 million people. In 2021, over US$ 150 million was generated from fish exports which is a 75% increase from the year 2020.
However, according to the Environmental Justice Foundation, Ghana loses about US$ 100 million annually to illegal, unregulated and underreported fishing activities.
The use of unapproved fishing gears, light fishing, dumping fish into the sea, fishing with explosives such as dynamite, and transhipment at sea, popularly called “Saiko” are among the bad fishing practices crippling the fishing industry.
European Union, Ghana’s leading export destination, had on several occasions issued various warnings to Ghana on Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU).
In 2013, Ghana received its first yellow card from the EU but was subsequently lifted after two years when the government passed new legislation and a clear fisheries management plan, the Marine Fisheries Management Plan [2015 to 2019].
However, that was short-lived with the EU arguing that although Ghana developed well-constructed policies on illegal fishing in 2015, it has not been implemented or enforced, allowing the situation to deteriorate. This led to a second yellow card by the EU in 2021.
A new Marine Fisheries Management Plan [2022 – 2026] has been developed to help Ghana escape from the yellow card sanction.