Small-scale fishing associations are calling on Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama to sign he country’s new Fisheries and Aquaculture Act into law without amendments, warning that recent lobbying from trawler interests threatens one of the most critical provisions: the expansion of the Inshore Exclusion Zone (IEZ) from 6 to 12 nautical miles.
The IEZ expansion has already been already approved by Parliament and is seen as essential to the livelihoods of more than 200,000 small-scale fishermen, 500,000 fish processors and traders, their families, and wider communities. This is considered a science-based reform that pushes industrial trawling, largely ultimately owned by foreign interests, further offshore, giving coastal communities the chance to rebuild their fisheries and food security.
According to EJF, large-scale fishing interests are lobbying to strip the IEZ provision from the law.
‘We urgently ask the President to ensure that the IEZ extension to 12nm is firmly fixed in the law, to allow space for our local fishermen to fish without any conflicts with the industrial trawlers,’ said Regina Solomon, President of the National Fish Processors and Traders Association.
‘When the trawlers come close to the area marked solely for our men, they tend to catch a lot of the fish meant for artisanal fishers, and we end up making huge losses. If these fish had been left for our men to catch, we would have made much more profits buying from them and selling, thereby securing the livelihoods of both our local fishermen and we the fish processors. The industrial trawlers can comfortably catch the export fish they are licensed for beyond the 12nm.’
‘For years, we have gone to sea with fear in our hearts. So, for us, the news that Parliament has extended our safe fishing zone to twelve nautical miles is a prayer answered,’ stated the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council’s secretariat.
‘We want to thank the Minister and the Parliament of Ghana for giving us safety, a chance to rebuild, and hope that we can continue to fish with dignity to provide for our families and our nation.’
