The Government is set to commence the registration and licensing of artisanal canoes used for fishing within the year, as part of efforts to address piracy and improve the fisheries sector.
The Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Emelia Arthur, indicated that while the laws governing the sector enjoined the ministry to register and license all fishing vessels and canoes, the recent pirate attacks called for an urgent action in that regard.
“So, this year, we are going to embark on a licensing regime for artisanal fleet.
It would come with other things that we are considering. In fact, this last piracy attack has shown us all that if we don’t act now, we’ll wait for bigger problems,” she said.
Ms Arthur was speaking at a meeting with stakeholders of the fisheries sector at the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Accra yesterday.
Established measures
The minister indicated that as part of measures to tackle piracy, the government would provide registered and licensed canoes with a communication system that would make them reachable anywhere in the country’s territorial waters.
Ms Arthur added that the ministry was working in collaboration with the State Insurance Company (SIC) and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to establish an insurance and pensions package for artisanal fishers.
The minister called for collective action to address the challenges facing the sector, stressing that “the solutions to the problems we collectively have created should come from all of us”.
Furthermore, the minister indicated that the government would this year provide subsidised inputs to fishers and fishmongers, including fishing nets, fish smoking ovens, aquaculture containers, head pans for women and wire mesh for the fishmongers.
She added that the inputs would be offered at a subsidised rate, with repayment arrangements to be made through a development bank to boost the fisheries sector, improve working conditions and enhance food security.
Commitment
Ms Arthur reaffirmed the government’s commitment to working with fisheries stakeholders to confront the challenges, safeguard livelihoods, and secure the long-term sustainability of the marine resources.
She asserted that globally, fisheries were confronted with declining fish stocks, with the country being no exception adding that illegal fishing practices had also become the bane of the fisheries sector globally, coupled with pressing safety and security concerns at sea.
She stressed that the recent piracy against fishers which demanded the intervention of the Fisheries Enforcement Unit, the Ghana Navy, the Marine Police and National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Awutu Senya West, Gizella Tetteh-Agbotui, and other stakeholders, underscored a vital truth the sector faced.
Ms Arthur added that the challenges could neither be addressed by the government alone nor by the fishers in isolation, but through shared responsibility and coordinated action across all parties in the fisheries sector.
She said the ministry in collaboration with the stakeholders would launch an “Artisanal Fishers Forum” to bring together all fisheries representatives on the same platform to tackle their shared challenges.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh