Cape Coast-Ghana, April 28, GNA – Hen Mpoano, a coastal not-for-profit organisation, has empowered some 30 journalists on small pelagic fisheries reporting at a two-day intensive workshop in Cape Coast.
The training was to intensify impactful reportage by journalists on the endangered multimillion fisheries sector.
The journalists were drawn from various media organisations in the Central and Western Regions to be made advocates for the survival of the sector.
Directors from the Fisheries Commission sensitised participants on critical matters affecting the sector including the fishing closed season, Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing practices, gender-based violence, and child labour and trafficking.
They also embarked on a field trip to the Moree landing beach to interact with fisherfolks and experience at first hand, the various challenges raised with the sector.
The training was also intended to speed up the Feed the Future Ghana Fisheries Recovery Activity (GFRA) which is a five-year project (2021 – 2026) funded by USAID to mitigate the near collapse of Ghana’s small pelagic fisheries.
Mr Kofi Agbogah, Director of Hen Mpoano, lamented the precarious state of the fisheries sector and called for concerted efforts by all stakeholders to save it from total collapse.
He observed that overfishing, overcapacity, widespread illegal fishing, weak enforcement of laws, poor management of the fisheries sector and climate change had for the past two decades led to a sharp decline in the small pelagic fish stock.
The situation, he cautioned, posed a danger of food and nutritional insecurity, unemployment, as well as economic, social and national insecurity.
“Our small pelagic fishery is on the brink of collapse and a total collapse will spell disaster for the artisanal sector with implication for the other sectors and the coastal and other communities that depend on it for their protein needs,” he stressed.
While acknowledging the efforts by government and some development partners at saving the sector, he stressed the need to do more.
Mr Kingsley Nana Buadu, the Executive Director of Journalists for Responsible Fisheries and Environment (JFRE), collaborators of the workshop, urged journalists to take keen interest in the sector.
He said journalists stood to enjoy boundless opportunities beyond helping to improve the state of the sector.
Ofarnyi Kweigya VII, the Chief fisherman of Moree, highlighted some challenges affecting the fisherfolks including their disagreement with the timing of the fishing closed season.
He suggested that the sea should be closed within the period of March to June when there was less fishing activities instead of August when they believed was a period of bumper harvest.
He also indicated that some fishermen were forced to engage in illegal fishing due to the invasion of big fishing trawlers on Ghana’s seas which were depriving them of adequate catch.
As a measure to check illegal fishing activities by the artisanal fishers, he proposed the drastic reduction or complete removal of the trawlers from the country’s fishing area.
