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AGRICULTURE

Ketu-South fishermen urge government to enforce ban on use of light in fishing

The Ketu-South District Branch of the Ghana Canoe Fishermen Council (GCFC) has implored Government to effect an outright ban on the use of light in the country's waters in order to save the fishing industry from collapse.

Date Created : 2/16/2010 12:00:00 AM : Story Author :

The Council said it was expecting that Government backs its stated commitment to deal with the menace with action.

It alleged that the practice still lingered on in the Greater-Accra, Central and Western regions long after it was curtailed in the Volta Region.

Mr Seth Abotsi, GCFC Ketu-South Chairman and District Chief Fisherman, said at a press conference organised by the branch on Friday at Adina that fishermen in the region were not happy with the situation.

He said apart from depleting the fish stock, fishing with light also negatively affects the marine ecology by inhibiting fungal formation.

Mr Abotsi said the practice also destroys small fish species that serve as feed for the bigger fishes and drives fishes deeper into the sea.

"The quality and taste of the fish caught through the practice are also affected,"he said, adding that the cumulative benefit in natural fishing outweighed that of unorthodox fishing over time.

Mr Abotsi said agitation was brewing among fishermen in the Volta Region to return to the use of light in fishing, alleging that fishing companies and fishermen from the Greater Accra and Western regions have come over to the Volta Region and are using light to fish.

He said the youth in the fishing communities were ready to combat the practice if the Ghana Navy were not ready to do so.

Mr Abotsi appealed to government to introduce a subsidy for fishing gadgets including nets and outboard motors to make it affordable for the fisher folks.