This is in line with the objective of reducing the country’s overdependence on imported fish.

The Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Elizabeth Afoley Quaye, who disclosed this also maintained that the effort will correct the balance of trade deficit that Ghana has been experiencing for sometime now.

According to the Minister, the objective will be achieved through a pragmatic fish farming exercise.

“The Ministry has substantial investments in the sector; with aquaculture being the flagship program to bridge the national fish requirement gap. Additional investment is being channeled to industry to produce 100,000 tonnes of farmed fish by 2018 to supplement our fish supply,” she stated.

Madam Afoley who was speaking at this year’s National Farmers’ Day Awards in Kumasi added, “Mr. President, with your able leadership, after launching the flagship program, Planting for Food and Jobs, you will be launching the aquaculture for food and jobs program in 2018.”

Although local consumption of fish has increased substantially to about 990,000 metric tonnes, local production have not grown to meet the demand.

The supply of fish is currently estimated at 588, 000 metric tonnes.

Similarly, fish imports are estimated to have increased by almost six times as at 2016, to about 600,000 metric tonnes.

Meanwhile the Fisheries Ministry is also set to roll out a fish feed processing entity to address the major issues confronting fish farmers in Ghana.

“Fish feed is the single most important cost component for the fish farming business. and to improve the fish feed supply situation, the Ministry has facilitated the construction of 40,000 metric tonne feed mill at Akuse; this will bring the total national production of fish feed to 100,000 metric tonnes annually,” the Minister concluded.

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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post Ghana’s local fish supply to increase by 100,000 tonnes appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Ghana, which consumes over 950,000 metric tons of fish annually, currently imports over 60 percent of its fish. Ghana in 2016 imported $135 million worth of fish because of the reduction in the country’s fish stock.

[contextly_sidebar id=”88gSGwENHB6vZNd01ivxZkIBjCgzh4mk”]According to the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Elizabeth Afoley Quaye, the huge imports could be blamed on the steady depletion of Ghana’s fish stock.

“We have a deficit of over 60% of production of fish in Ghana. So we import over 600,000 metric tonnes of fish and we produce less than 400,000. At the moment we have our stocks depleting steadily and we really have to do something quickly about it else we lose our stocks entirely,” she told Bernard Avle on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday.

Afoley Quaye, however added that her outfit is doing everything possible to reverse the trend.

“What the Ministry of Fisheries is doing at the moment is that, we are trying as much as we can to stop illegal fishing because this is the main contributor to the depletion of our stocks,” she noted.

The Minister highlighted three different scenarios she claimed were contributing massively to the depleting fishing stock including transshipment, light fishing and harvesting wrong fishes.

With the transshipment method, Afoley Quaye said vessel owners usually sell their catch at sea before returning to the ports.

“This method of fishing is when the vessels go to sea, they make their catch and they sell their fish at sea. They do not come down to the port to report their catch so the nation can also make revenue from the business that the fishers are doing.”

“Another form is light fishing. This light fishing is done mostly by the artisanal fishers and the semi-industrial fishers. They fix a light equipment into the fish with the aim of aggregating the fish towards the light. All manner of fishes are drawn to the light so they scoop everything including those ones that are supposed to be left in the sea to grow including those with eggs,” the Minister explained.

She noted that the light fishing method has been outlawed in Ghana, adding that the Fisheries Ministry is doing everything possible to ensure that the law is complied with.

“Another form of illegal fishing is harvesting wrong sizes of fish to the ports. So we have formed a task-force which is inspecting the vessels and catches at the harbour.”

She noted that the task-force’s role among other things is to arrest captains of vessels who could not communicate with Ghanaians properly as well as unhealthy conditions of their crew.

“So what we are doing is to be sure that those who are captaining the vessels with Ghanaian flags; those registered in Ghana, the captain should be able to speak our language and be able to communicate with the crew. When it is found out after the inspection that the crew members are not sleeping in good conditions as well as the vessel not being in good condition that is also seen as illegal fishing,” she added.

Ghana Police chase two Chinese for importing unwholesome fish 

The Minister made the remark on the back of the Ghana Police Service’s manhunt for two Chinese nationals who are said to have imported unwholesome tilapia into the country.

According to the Police, they have a bench warrant to arrest the two; Zhang Ming alias Gary and Chu Yong Shuai “for the offence of importation of Tilapia Fish in commercial quantity into the Republic of Ghana without permit contrary to section 130 (1) and (3) of Fisheries Act 2002 (Act 625) respectively.”

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Ghana imports 60% of fish consumed – Fisheries Minister appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

But if you think the mining menace is happening only on land, you may want to reconsider your stands. Apart from fish from inland sources like River Ankobra and others becoming poisonous due to heavy metals in them, the oceans, which currently supply majority of the fish we consume is faced with “sea galamsey”.

[contextly_sidebar id=”F2LWajPsOwGvVL8YZlftSZiiUQzoUust”]As we speak, the entire coast from Keta in the Volta Region to Half Assini in the Western Region has been open up for oil exploration. Oil companies are crisscrossing the sea every time for oil, just as miners do.

But you know; Ghana has three oil fields. Each of them has 500 meter safety zone around its FPSOs. Truth is; these installations obstruct fishing activities no matter the explanation suggesting otherwise. Add that to the illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing practices by the fishermen themselves; and the fishing space is in turbulence.

While at that, between January and March this year, different oil companies are carrying out different activities that impede fishing in the western waters; particularly at different times. Tullow Oil started another seismic survey on 16th January, 2017, and ended on 16th March, 2017.

For 49 clear technical days that this activity was carried out within the 3 months period, fishermen who carry out their expedition in this part of the coast have had interrupted expeditions.

Whilst they were on it, four sea accidents were recorded where ships carrying the seismic surveys collided with innocent fishermen on their fishing expedition. The accident led to the loss of two canoes and other fishing gears.

Others were left on high seas for three days against their initial plan. Till date, two of the disputed cases are yet to be addressed.

Secondly, when the FPSO J.A. Kufuor by ENI was been anchored to its final destination in January, fishing activities were also hampered for 7 clear days.

As we speak, Springfield E&P, another Oil company, is also carrying out seismic surveys in the same western waters. They started on April 10th and will complete on May 7th.

No one is saying we shouldn’t prospect for oil. But, as we’ve messed up with gold, if similar is done offshore, where every area is permitted for prospecting, we will crush down the fisheries sector employing 10 percent of the population.

Again, this should scare you the more. There are four coastal regions in Ghana. Out of these, the Western Region produces one-third (1/3) of total fish catch in Ghana annually from its 197 landing sites. It is followed by the Greater Accra Region, Central Region then Volta Region.

However, the leading fish producing region; Western, is the region seeing increased search for oil. So where are we going? And what will become of the fishing space?

In 2016, the Fisheries Ministry projected that fishermen across the country will harvest a total of 329,358.42 metric tons of fish. However, by the end of December 2016, the fishermen could do 294,627.07 metric tons, a shortage of 34,731.35mt. Bear in mind that we are already importing some 1 million metric tons of fish already. So what are we doing to ourselves?

Now check out the similarities between what is happening with galamsey and what is happening offshore.

Problem with what is happening offshore is that, our government feels oil is important than those fishermen and the fish they get. Yes, but the number of people whose livelihood depend on this sector that we are gradually killing it is enormous. No one would want that to happen to its country. Oil cannot replace fish.

Other countries drilling oil have exclusive zones reserved for fishing. Friends of the Nation and Hen Mpoano, all NGOs in the western region have advocated for this exclusive zone, yet, 10 years down the line, the situation remains same. We are waiting till it gets to the levels of Galamsey before the media is called in. Our behaviour does not reflect a serious country. The tragedy of mining in Ghana is that, every part of the country is opened up for mining and it’s a problem with leadership, not the citizens.

So the question is: Why is leadership giving out all lands and rivers out for mining without recourse to tomorrow?

Maybe those of us at Citi FM and other media organisations, must be thinking of the next hashtag.
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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/Citifmonline.com/Ghana
[email protected]

The post Obrempong’s Oil Diary: Sacrificing fishes for oil; a ‘galamsey’ threat offshore appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.