Navy, Marine Police tasked to enforced ban on fishing

The government has tasked the Marine Police, the Ghana Navy and other agencies in the fisheries sector to patrol the seas to ensure a strict compliance with the closed fishing season.

The month-long ban on in-shore and artisanal fishing is to help replenish the depleting fish stock in the country’s seas.

Previous attempts to impose the ban in 2018 failed after the fisher-folk resisted it but after further consultation with stakeholders, the ban was agreed to be effected from 15 May to 15 June 2019.

To ensure compliance, the Deputy Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Mr Kingsley Ato Cudjoe says the fisheries enforcement unit, the Ghana Navy the marine police will monitor and patrol the seas to arrest fisher folk who flout the ban.

He said: “These are sacrifices that all other countries have done to revive their fisheries [sector]. If we are fishing all year and we say we won’t allow the fish to replenish for one month because we were not compensated then we want all the fish to finish. Our task is to develop the fisheries industry and we have to put in whatever is required to regulate the industry.

“We work with fisheries enforcement unit, we work with the navy, marine police and the navy is on the high seas patrolling, and they will do so for the one month, and anybody that is caught, the marine police will take it up and prosecute you. We also have our officers combing the beaches to see if there is any infringement on the close season.”

Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com