Kluminya Fisher Folks Call For Assistance As Armed Fishermen Engage In Illegal Fishing

Fisher folks at Kluminya Akatawia, a suburb of the Fanteakwa North District in the Eastern Region are calling on the government through the Ministry Of Fisheries And Aquaculture Development to come to their aid as some fisher folks in the area are using DDT, unapproved nets and other harmful chemicals for fishing activities.

According to the complainants, all effort to get the menace controlled have so far proved unsuccessful.

Some residents of the area Rite FM interviewed said, “The situation is so alarming in a way that needs urgent attention because it is our source of drinking water and for other domestic uses. Once it is being polluted it is putting our lives in danger including Ghanaians as a whole since they transport those fishes to other market places in other parts of the country.”

The fisherfolks who attributed low catch to these unsavoury means of fishing say the activities are destroying their source of livelihood.

“Those fishermen use DDT, mosquito nets, bamboo dynamites and other harmful chemicals for their fishing and subsequently resulting in low catch,” they alleged.

According to them, these fishermen are always armed which encourages them to pursue their illegal activities with impunity.

“They are armed and do not care or afraid of anything anytime they are fishing. In fact our lives are in danger,” they maintain.

Nene Pioga Ofori, chief of the area disclosed to Rite News that they have called on the police for assistance but to no avail and their last hope is the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development.

The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture and several stakeholders in the aquaculture sector have consistently engaged fisherfolks on strategies to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the fishing industry.

President Akufo-Addo earlier this year announced that government was discussing plans to acquire a fishing research vessel to monitor and address illegal fishing in the country.

According to the President over the years, and especially in recent times, nearly all of Ghana’s marine fisheries and some inland fisheries have been overfished.

Government has set an inter-ministerial committee to check activities of unregulated and illegal fishing said to be depleting the fish stock in the country’s waters.

The country risks being fish deficient if illegal fishing is not checked. Illegal methods of fishing, as well as the over-exploitation of Ghana’s marine resources, cannot continue, as they threaten the very essence of the country’s existence.

By: Austin  Ofori Addo/ritefmonline.org/austinofori.addo@gmail.com