Fisheries Ministry develops medium term plan

The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development is developing a five-year medium term National Fisheries Resource Management Plan to properly manage the country’s resources.

The sector Minister, Ms Sherry Aryeetey, who announced this at a public forum in Accra last Tuesday, said the plan would, among other things, seek to halt the over-exploitation of marine resources, promote co-management for effective protection of the marine environment and promote research into topical issues relating to sustainability of the  country’s marine resources.

She said it would also promote effective enforcement of the fisheries laws.

The public forum was organised by the Ghana National Committee of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (GNC-IOC), on the theme, “Ocean Governance – The Role of Stakeholders”.

It was sponsored by the Council for Scientific Research, Water Research Institute (CSIR-WRI), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ghana Shippers Authority, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, the Fisheries Scientific Survey Division and UNESCO.

Over-exploitation

Ms Aryeetey said although the country’s ocean was well endowed with numerous natural resources, they were being over-exploited through various means which had resulted in resource use conflicts, degradation, destruction of the marine environment, dwindling of fish stock and the depletion of aquatic resources.

She added that it was estimated that countries in the third world lost about $30 billion annually as a result of illegal fishing in their coastal waters. “If we don’t handle the ocean well, there would be nothing left for us.”

Benefits of the ocean

The Chairman of the GNC-IOC and Director of the Council for Scientific Research, Water Research Institute (CSIR-WRI), Dr Joseph Ampofo, said “although marine products such as sea food, sand and oil have been valued for decades, it is only recently that we have begun to appreciate the ocean’s vital services in maintaining ecological diversity and regulating climate.”

He said a recent calculation based on more than 100 studies over the past two decades suggested that ocean services were worth US$23 trillion a year, while it was estimated that the seas and oceans supplied two-thirds of the value of all the natural services provided by the natural environment.