The Executive Director of the Centre for Maritime Law and Security Africa (CEMLAW), Dr Ali Kamal-Deen, has called on the government to provide funding for the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture to conduct research into the health of fish stock from Ghana’s ocean.
He said for some years now, the Ministry had not conducted any research to get adequate information on the biomass ofthe country’s fish stock.
“We need to know the complete health of our fisheries since fish is a biomass and resource, and is one that must be healthy so that it can exist and be able to produce,” he said.
“As of now we do not know completely the health of our fish, and we need to conduct certain scientific research to know the state of our fisheries biomass, the different species they produce and among others,” Dr Kamal-Deen said this last week Friday at a workshop on ‘Distant Water Fishing Vessels’ for some selected journalists in Accra.
The day training was organised in collaboration with Centre for Coastal Management (CCM), University of Cape Coast, to equip journalists with relevant skills and expertise in fisheries laws, management policies and fisheries livelihoods.
Dr Kamal-Deen said the government should assist the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture, and the Fisheries Commission, to purchase a research vessel to conduct the research for sound decision making.
“Information flow is key to every governance issue, thus whether political governance, economic governance, and is even much more significance in the area of fisheries since is a resource that people directly depend on for the livelihood. The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture, and the Fisheries Commission have that mandate to make fisheries information available so that different stakeholders can use the information for the purposes of understanding fisheries and contributing to the sector,” Dr Kamal-Deen said.
He called on the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture to release last year’sfishing closed season report, to help stakeholders make decision towards the next one.
BY BERNARD BENGHAN