A workshop on the negative impact of ‘saiko’ (illegal) fishing has been held at Fijai in the Western Region.
Saiko is the local name for illegal fish transactions where industrial trawlers transfer frozen fish to specially adapted canoes out at sea, a practice which is prohibited under Ghana’s fisheries Laws.
Offenders are fined between US$100,000. The fine increases to US$ 1 million where catches involve juvenile fish or the use of prohibited fishing gears.
The secretary to the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council of the Western Region, Michael Abaka-Edu, said today’s fishing industry could not be compared to the fishing which was practised in time past.
He said the infiltration of foreign trawlers, the use of light, the use of prohibited gears and other wrong practices at sea were not known or applied by the local fisherman, saying the right fishing methods used by the ancient fisherman allowed for more fish to breed for fishermen to continue to fish throughout the year.
Mr Abaka-Edu observed that government’s inability to stop the use of these gears at sea was contributing to the collapse of the local fishing industry and this would bring untold hardship to all the coastal dwellers who depended so much on the sea, adding that “the practice of ‘saiko’ has collapsed about 95 per cent of the local fishing industry”.
He said law enforcement agencies such as the Ghana Navy, the Marine Police and the Fisheries Commission were woefully under resourced to carry on the duty given to them.
The Queen Mother of Egyembra, Nana Apenbeng III, said those who use light, dynamite and other illegal gears could not easily be arrested because most of them were armed and could be dangerous.
The Western Regional Director of Fisheries, Mr Godfrey Tsibu-Baidoo, noted that currently, the fishermen do not know where to go for fishing because ‘saiko’ has depleted the fish stock.
He disclosed that about 80 ‘saiko’ boats could be found in the waters within their jurisdiction, describing it as very shocking, and urged the fishermen to step up the crusade against the illegal activity in order to restock the fish in Ghanaian waters.
FROM PETER GBAMBILA, FIJAI
