Three trawlers have arrived in Ghana from China and have been registered to the Ghanaian flag, despite the country’s moratorium on adding more fishing vessels to the fleet. The Ghanaian government’s own Fisheries Management Plan states that 48 trawlers are the most that the fishery can sustain, yet 76 trawlers were licensed at the end of 2019.
According to EJF, the three trawlers were built in China in 2016, and were under the Chinese flag before arriving in Ghana. Yu Feng 1, Yu Feng 2 and Yu Feng 3 are currently alongside in Tema, registered under the Ghanaian flag and awaiting licensing by the Fisheries Commission
In 2018 EJF revealed that overseas companies, overwhelmingly Chinese, operate through Ghanaian front companies to flag vessels onto the Ghanaian registry and obtain fishing licences. According to EJF, the majority of the trawler fleet is linked to Chinese ownership – despite a prohibition on foreign ownership in Ghana’s industrial trawl sector, set out clearly in Ghana’s 2002 Fisheries Act.
Ghana’s National Canoe Fishermen Council (GNCFC) has written an open letter to the Fisheries Commission opposing any decision to grant these vessels licences to fish in Ghana’s waters.
“We are firmly opposed to any decision to issue these newly arrived vessels with licenses to fish in Ghana’s waters,” states the GNCFC.
“Not only is there a government moratorium on fishing licences for new or replacement trawl vessels, in force since 2012, but overfishing and the destructive illegal practices of many trawlers are having a devastating impact on fish populations in Ghana and livelihoods of coastal communities.”
Although the Fisheries Management Plan – which is currently under review – states that the marine fisheries can sustain 48 trawlers, this may well be an overestimate since it does not account for the fish taken illegally.
“The country is already confronted with major challenges in controlling the vessels that have existing licenses in Ghana. We continue to see large quantities of fish landed by saiko canoes at Elmina fishing harbour, even after government and industry committed to end the practice last November,” states the GNCFC.
The saiko trade – in which trawlers illegally target the main catch of canoe fishermen, transfer it at sea to specially adapted boats, and sell the stolen fish back to local communities – took an estimated 100,000 tonnes of fish in 2017.
This means that just 40% of catches were caught legally and reported to the government in that year. Therefore EJF estimates that the reality could be that just 24-25 trawlers may be the most the fisheries can support, and this is an issue requiring urgent scientific re-assessment.
