Marine police train to enhance performance
A five-day workshop for 30 personnel from the Marine Police Unit of the Ghana Police Service on global fisheries and the state of fisheries in Ghana has ended in Tema.
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The purpose of the training was to enhance the understanding of the marine police on the importance, governance challenges, opportunities and legal and regulatory framework of the fisheries sector for better enforcement of its laws.
It was organised by the Friends of the Nation (FON), a non-governmental organisation involved in global environmental sustainability and sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Course content
The training programme formed part of the series of activities under the five-year USAID/ Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP) aimed at contributing to rebuilding Ghana's marine fisheries stocks and catches through the adoption of responsible fishing practices.
The participants were taken through the overview of Ghana’s fisheries sector, regulations, standard of operations, code of conduct for enforcement, approaches and communications, simulation exercise and field trips.
The participants were also sensitised to the new national fisheries management plan (2015-2019) and options in fisheries management. They visited the Tema Fishing Harbour to interact with fishermen to deepen their understanding in the fishing industry.
Manpower
Closing the workshop, the Tema Unit Commissioner of Marine Police, Superintendent Joseph Antwi Ababio, described the programme as a good partnership which would go a long way to strengthen the skills and competencies of the marine police personnel in the country.
He said that the rich resources in the waters created numerous important economic activities which directly affected majority of the population, and added that in the interest of preserving those resources, the Police Administration had put in place plans to increase the manpower level of the Marine Police Department through internal recruitment in order to police these resources.
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The Coordinator and Administrator of the National Association of Fisheries of Ghana (NAFAG), Mr Daniel Yaw Owusu, who chaired the closing ceremony, urged the participants to utilise the lessons learnt to ensure that the fish stocks within the fisheries waters of Ghana were not over exploited.