The Closed Fishing Season is here with us again. The 2023 period started last week, Saturday July 1, 2023, and will end on August 31, 2023. The artisanal and inshore fleets are to observe the closed season from July 1 to July 31, 2023, whilst that of trawling vessels take effect from July 1 to August 31, 2023.
The Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Mavis Hawa Koomson, who announced this on Wednesday in Accra, noted that consultations with all stakeholders in the fishing industry was done before the announcement.
According to her, the Ministry implemented the Closed Fishing Season as a stock recovery strategy, based on scientific recommendations. The Closed Season was implemented, she explained, to reduce overfishing and high fishing pressure, recover over-exploited fish stocks, rebuild depleted fish stocks, and replenish dwindling fish stocks.
The Closed Fishing Season has been observed by Ghana since 2019 to date, except in 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though Ghana was expected to be joined by Benin, Liberia and Togo to simultaneously observe the Closed Season period, the three countries have postponed it to next year. In other words, it is only Cote d’Ivoire that is joining Ghana to observe this years’ Closed Season.
Ghana has 10,000 to 12,000 registered canoes operating in her waters, and these fishermen will not be allowed to operate during the period of the ban.
This move, as the sector Minister has indicated, is a great step towards achieving sustainable fishing and is also intended to replenish the depleting fish stock in the marine sub-sector.
For us, at The Chronicle, the Closed Season policy, as is being implemented to reduce over-exploitation and also replenish fish stocks in the Ghanaian waters, is a major step towards the sustenance of the livelihoods of over 2.7 million Ghanaians.
We, however, want to find out from the authorities if there is, indeed, scientific data to support the claim that the fish stocks in the sea is replenished during the period of the ban.
Though the Minister claims there is one, she failed to make that known. It is upon the basis of this that we challenge her to produce the said report. We are throwing this challenge, because there is a school of thought that during this period of the Closed Season, powerful people in the country take advantage to ship in frozen fish products to compensate for the shortfall.
In the opinion of The Chronicle, closing the fish season for a period of one month is surely not enough to help fight maritime crimes, most especially Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, which has become prevalent in our waters.
There is, therefore, the need for the Ministry of Fishery and Aquaculture to engage stakeholders in the fishing industry including fishermen, canoe owners, and fish processors amongst others to jaw-jaw to find ways of fighting maritime crimes. Without the proper involvement of stakeholders, there is no way we can effectively fight and win the war.
We are saying this, because no nation has been able to fight maritime crimes, and no single nation can tackle it alone.
For instance, James Town, Denu, Jay Wharf, Axim, Apam, Cape Coast, Prampram are captured in a Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Center (KAIPTC) report as coastal areas where, most particularly, IUU fishing is rife.
That is why there is the need for collaboration, coordination and cooperation amongst the stakeholders to fight maritime crimes in order to save our blue economy.
The blue economy is a big prospect for the country, and the time to save it from the hands evil minded people is now!
