War on pair trawling attracts diverse views(page three) December 18, 2008

Story: Michael Donkor
Fishermen in Accra have expressed diverse reactions towards moves by the government to declare war on pair trawling in the country’s territorial waters.
While some of them said the move was a positive step towards addressing the problem in the future others were of the opinion that it would be an exercise in futility, since the peak season during which they made heavy catch of fish had long passed.
According to them, the peak season for fishing was in late July, through to August and September, every year. The fishermen were randomly interviewed by the Daily Graphic.
Nii Lamptey Otu, a fisherman at Chokor, an Accra suburb, said the government’s intervention was a step in the right direction because of its long-term effect.
However, he said fishermen had to wait to enjoy the benefits of the government’s intervention.
Nii Otu said although it took the government some time to come to the aid of fishermen as far as pair trawling was concerned, it was better late than never because some of them had no other business but fishing.
Mr Oko Oblie welcomed the move and said with the new boats secured for the Ghana Navy and the subsequent publicity given, it would ward off those engaged in such illegal practices.
He said what was important now was for the Navy to patrol the sea constantly to ensure that those engaged in pair trawling were arrested and brought to book.
Mr Adjei Tettey said they had long been waiting for the government to do something about pair trawling but to no avail until the fishing season lapsed.
Mr Tettey said now that the government had come out with the intervention, they hoped that the security agencies, particularly the Navy, would live up to expectation.
He urged the government to intensify efforts to correct the situation for them to remain in business.
Mr Lantey Odoi on his part described the intervention as an exercise in futility.
He said what should have been done first was to withdraw the licence issued to some fishing companies to engage in pair trawling.
He said if the licence of those companies were not withdrawn the Navy’s patrolling of the sea would be an empty exercise.
Another fisherman, Nii Ayi Mensah, also said the intervention came too late.
He said he had lost his capital because on many occasions that he went to fishing, he could not harvest fish resulting in the waste of the fuel he had bought.
He said this raised his operation cost and finally the lost of his business capital.
Mr Samson Okaikoi called on the government to take another step to withdraw the licence of those companies that had been permitted to operate pair trawling on pilot basis and support the fishermen financially to bounce back to business.
The government announced last Monday that the Western Naval Command and the Ghana Air Force had embarked on an operation to protect the fish stock in the country’s territorial waters.
It said the move was to ensure that the country’s fishermen derived optimum benefit from the country’s marine resources and halt the depletion of the country’s fish stock by those engaged in pair trawling.
It said the exercise, code-named “Operation Stock Control” under the Anti-Pair Trawling Operations of the Ghana Armed Forces, would ensure policing activities that would stop such activities in the country once and for all.
The government said the programme was also intended to provide the much needed relief for Ghanaian fishermen who had been subjected to severe harassment and considerable loss of income as a result of those illegal activities at sea.
It said under “Operation Stock Control”, the Ghana Navy had been equipped with three speedboats to patrol the country’s territorial waters.
It said the Navy would be assisted by the Ghana Air Force, which would fly its aircraft to prompt the Navy to the activities of pair trawlers.