Government takes steps to sanitise fishing industry

By: Benjamin Xornam Glover, TEMA The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, has introduced new control measures on Ghanaian-flagged vessels that intend to fish in both within and in neighboring countries Under the new measures no Ghanaian semi-industrial and industrial trawlers will be issued with a license to fish without a Vessel Monitoring System, (VMS) The Head of Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) Division of the Fisheries Commission Mr Godfrey Baidoo-Tsibu who disclosed this at a meeting with industrial trawler owners at Tema, warned that any Ghanaian registered tuna and trawl vessels that proceed to sea without a functioning VMS face possible sanctions in the future for illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUUF). He said of the 106 semi-industrial and industrial Ghanaian fishing vessels, including trawlers targeted for registration and installation of the VMS by the deadline of September 5, 2014, only 79 have met fully complied with the law. The remaining 27, he said could not meet the deadline and as such have been debarred from proceeding to sea. The VMS is equipped with a global positioning system and allows the Fisheries Monitoring Center (FMC) to monitor position, course and speed of a boat through a satellite network. The requirement for VMS as a condition for fishing vessels proceeding to sea and fishing is a cardinal provision under the Fisheries At 2002 (ACT 925) the fisheries Regulations 2010 and forms part of the obligations under the international market access conditions. He said the project was embarked on in collaborating with the World Bank and Global Environmental Facility to improve the fishing industry. Penalties and Regulations Baidoo-Tsibu said penalties for such offenders will include suspension and revocation of fishing licenses, confiscation of vessel and possible delisting from the Ghanaian registry. He encouraged owners of trawlers and vessels equipped with the system to ensure that the device is fully operational at all times and also instruct the Master of the vessel transmit data to the FMC. Mr Baidoo-Tsibu said took the participants through a number of regulations covering the VMS among which he said the Master of every vessel is to ensure that the catch data is not altered adding that in the event of a technical failure or non-functioning of a monitoring device, the Master or the owner of the vessel or their representatives should communicate to the FMC every two hours or at shorter interval as specified by the centre any information required from the time of notification of failure of the device. He noted that with the current increase in activities pirates, kidnappers, drug traffickers, illegal fishing, among others in maritime domain on the Gulf of Guinea there was the need for vessel monitoring system (VMS) and Automatic Identification System (AIS), to check vessel movements and curtail the increasing rate of piracy and other illegal activities in the coast of West Africa He appealed to all owners of tuna and trawl vessels to comply with the regulations in order to avoid suspension and revocation of fishing licensing, confiscation of vessel and possible delisting from the Ghanaian registry. The President of National Fisheries Association of Ghana (NAFAG), Flt Lt M.G. Tackie, urged all tuna and trawl vessel owners to make full use of the facility to help boost the industry. -End- Effective September 5, 2014, any Ghanaian large scale tuna fishing vessels without a functioning vessel monitoring system will not be permitted to proceed to sea. The move is a cardinal provision under the Fisheries At 2002 (ACT 925) the fisheries Regulations 2010 and forms part of the obligations under the international market access conditions Any vessels which fail to comply with the regulations risk been suspended, revocation of fishing licensing, confiscation of vessel and possible delisting from the Ghanaian registry.