The Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council (GNCFC) has laid an embargo on new entrance of canoes from various landing beaches across the country’s coast, effective January 2023.
Members have established a three-year moratorium – a measure to limit the number of canoes fishing along the country’s coast to make the sector more sustainable and attractive.
Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Aqua Culture Development (MoFAD), Moses Anim, indicated that the closure of further canoe entries is in the right direction for development of the economy.
Following the overcapacity of artisans’ fishing canoes, he explained that the current number of canoes are over 15,000 in the industry – which have to be regulated to ease the burden of activities such as over-fishing and illegal fishing etc. in the sea.
He said government is ensuring that year-on-year fishermen enjoy all the subsidies on premix fuel, nets, outboard motors and others; and urged them to comply with the current initiative so that government will achieve objectives of the national fisheries management plan.
This initiative was accepted by all members last Tuesday during a national dialogue forum in Tema, put together by leadership of the GNCFC – a platform to find out challenges confronting the industry and how to resolve them.
President of the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council, Jojo Solomon, told the B&FT in an interview that the move will be immense help for them; adding that, henceforth, no fisherman can go on fishing expedition without registered licence plates embossed on their canoes.
He explained that they opted for the moratorium because there is an overcapacity of artisan canoes in the sector.
“Anything that is not regulated has no future. I hear the sustainable number of fleets that we can have right now depending on the stock level is 9,000 canoes, and we have over 15,000 canoes at the moment while our marine space is such an open access. It is now crucial that in the next three years we suspend the coming-in of new canoes to ease the burden on the sea,” Mr. Solomon said.
