admin

Ghana: Artisanal fishers blame dwindling fish stock on changes in climate & IUU activities

Kobina Atta has been fishing in Sekondi on the western coast of Ghana since age 20. Now at 51, he complains about the changes in the seasons, rise in sea level, and dwindling stock of fishes, having a toll on his livelihood.

“These days, the seasons have changed, we cannot differentiate between the Harmattan and the rainy seasons. It can rain today and in the next minute, the sun will be blazing. This really disrupts our activities,” he said.

This, he believes, has brought in its wake an increasing decline in fish stock and catch as fishing boats often returned from sea almost empty.

Atta, like many other artisanal fishers, has a strong conviction that changes in the climate is one of the driving forces behind the phenomenon.

Ghana’s Fisheries Sector

According to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture there are more than two million people in Ghana, or around 10 per cent of the population, who rely directly on fishing and related activities for their livelihoods.

A report published by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) in 2018 said Ghana accounts for about 11 per cent of the total artisanal canoes in West Africa with small-scale fishing employing around 80 per cent of all fishers in the country.

The EJF said widespread illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and destructive practices such as the use of dynamite, monofilament nets, DDT, and light, continually cause irreplaceable damage to marine ecosystems.

The Impact of Climate Change

In Ghana, ocean warming and acidification, arguably the two most dramatic effects of climate change on oceanographic conditions, are already wreaking havoc on those who make their living from the sea.

This is coupled with widespread IUU fishing, which spans from indiscriminate use of chemicals and explosives by canoe fishermen to increasing light fishing by both small-scale and tuna vessels.

Most fishermen complain that surface water fishes appear to be disappearing with reduction in the sizes of the fishes, attributing it to the changes in the marine environment.

The rise in sea levels has also resulted in coastal erosion, high tides in recent times, tidal waves affecting fishers, and storms making fishers unable to go for fishing expeditions as they wished.

“Nowadays we have noticed some changes in the sea. We have realised that the seawater has become warmer than it used to be,” said Atta.

Another fisherman, Samuel Tetteh, who has been fishing since age 15, said: “These days the fishes do not stay at the surface of the sea, they go deep down. You know for us in artisanal fishing, we have to see the fishes before we cast our nets, so sometimes we have to go long hours before we can see some fishes and cast our nets”.

At age 41, Tetteh said though climate change was a contributory factor, it could not be solely blamed for the decline in fish stock and mentioned engagement in light fishing among other IUU practices as other factors.

“The concentration of carbonic acid at the surface of the seawater makes it uncomfortable for fishes to stay at the surface. The fish now prefer to stay at the bottom than at the surface,” he said.

Another challenge has to do with the rise in sea levels, which the fishermen say is destroying many coastal lands.

“Sometimes we are unable to go to sea because of the high tides. We believe that the tidal waves as we have been witnessing in recent times are all as a result of changes in the climate,” Mr Tetteh said.

Nana Kweigya is a fisherman at Anomabo in the Central Region and the Chairman of the Canoe and Fishing Gear Owners Association of Ghana.

He said climate change is impacting negatively on artisanal fishing.

“Climate change has affected fisheries and continues to affect small-scale fisheries especially. There are pieces of evidence that point to the fact that it has increased acidity of the seawater and has, in turn, affected the production of fish,” he said.

Nana Kweigya said the sizes of fish had reduced and also believed that they were all as a result of global warming and climate change.

That, he said, had affected fish production because many of the eggs were destroyed long before they matured, resulting in a decline in fish stock.

Nana Kweigya explained that it was the reason fishermen had resulted to using light to attract fish before they cast their net.

“General I will say climate change is negatively impacting on fishing and limiting access to fish by artisanal fishers,” he said, and called for serious discussions on how to mitigate the impact of climate change on fishing and related activities.

However, in contrast, Mr. Socrates Segbor, the Fisheries Programmes Manager of EJF, believes that there are not enough scientific data to prove that climate change is impacting fishing.

Though he did not rule out its possible negative impact, he said the stories of the fishermen remained their opinion until they were scientifically proven.

For him, the lack of scientific data about the impact of climate change gave people the opportunity to speculate and lux about what to do to address the issues of IUU.

He, therefore, appealed to Ghana’s Fisheries Commission and other academic institutions to undertake scientific research on the impact of climate change in the fisheries sector to confirm or reject the opinions of the fishermen.

This report was supported with a micro grant from SOA Ghana

Report by Afedzi Abdullah | SOA Ghana Member

Bless Aglago writes: The plastic menace in Ghana and the journey forward

Plastic pollution has become one of the biggest environmental hazards facing many countries today and Ghana’s ocean ecosystem has not been spared of its wrath.

Ghana alone generates about 1.1 million tone of plastic waste per year, of which only 5% recycled according to the World Economic Forum.

Is there not any action plan by government, non-governmental and individual to reduce the plastic waste pollution? What are the causes, possible preventions and its health complication? Did you know the enormous of mass plastic in the ocean made it to be called the 7^th continent, meaning in years to come, there will be more plastic than fishes in the sea.

Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic waste in our society or community that has to do with cigarette, bottle cups, polythene bags etc. These accumulation affect health, wildlife habitat, and humans. The sea, beaches, rivers and land of our environment are filled with plastic waste and that pave way for my story

Plastic pollution has become common in our society today especially those that live around the coastal areas such Nungua, Anloga, keta and among many others. But is it only the people living in that area that get the environment polluted by plastics and others? What is our ocean turning into? Marine pollution everywhere. What has the EPA done so far about it because in years to come there will be water scarcity due to non-stop pollution.

As a result of improper waste disposal, plastic waste from the various communities ends up in our water bodies which at the ends affect our health and the lives of fishes. The United Nations Environment Program estimate that about 15 trillion particles of micro plastic are existing in the ocean whilst 12.7 million tons of plastic waste are washed into the ocean yearly which means marine species are at danger of indigestion, suffocation and others. Thus seabirds and turtles are at higher risk always (Mambra 2020, Reddy 2018).

Causes

Negligence; It is estimated that 80% of marine or sea litter and waste comes from land. Meaning humans are responsible for this plastic waste due to improper recycling of household waste which ends up in the ocean by wind and rain.

Secondly, natural disaster; this has to do with floods that are caused by choked gutters and improper disposable of waste that are swept into the ocean.

Fishing nets; since towns located around the coastal areas does nothing than commercial fishing it has become necessity for most part of the world to depend on fish to get the right amount of diet for their living. But at the end of the day, this commercial has contributed to plastic pollution in the ocean such that the net used in fishing is made of plastic and affect the life of marine fishes or animals

Effects

Health of human; the seafood that are eaten now and then are contaminated by plastics that end up in the ocean. According to scientists, micro plastic of 114 are found within the species of marine where 1/3 of these foods ends on the plates of human before consuming. And unfortunately, some people do not take their time in preparing this foods before consumed into our body especially the food vendors which end up affecting our health.

According to WHO in 2018 research conducted, 90% of micro plastics are found in bottle water in regards to the fact some of these plastics are picked from seashores and recycled into re-usable ones without any treatment hence water poured into this bottles are contaminated at the end of the day.

wildlife; plastics that finds their way into the ocean affect the habitat of fishes and wildlife in the ocean, sometimes, this marine animals get trapped in the various fishing net which affect their insecurity of living. due to many plastic particles that find their way into the ocean, it is unsafe for these wildlife to continue living at one place hence they keep moving from place to the other which at the end of the day, affect fishing practices.

lastly, it makes our beaches and seashore dirty; since the sea does not anything into itself, any plastic that enters the oceans find their way out at the shores that makes the surrounding unclean and affect the health those living around.

Possible measures or solution

Education; there is there need for more education to be done in order to educate people on how to handle plastic waste and proper disposal. Restaurants can also be educated concerning how their packaging etc. single use can help reduce the impact of plastic pollution in Ghana especially the capital city.

Also government policies; the policies that brought out by government should favor the least person in the society. The implementation and enforcing of country-wide policy. Either to ban or re-use policy such as pure water plastics bags, shopping bags and others.

Increased in recycling; plastics should be recycled properly without leaving any. Everything plastic should be recycled wit available machines. There can be alternative technology introduction that can help in recycling.

Producer responsibility; this has to do with producers being accountable for plastic waste on our environment. There should be regulation of re-usage and compulsory take back programs.

Article by Bless Aglago | 2021 SOA Ghana Fellow