Per the government’s Fisheries Management Plan, the country’s fishery can sustain 48 trawlers, yet, 76 trawlers licensed at the end of 2019.

Ghana continues to see large quantities of fish landed by Saiko canoes at Elmina Fishing Harbor, even after the government and the fishing industry committed to ending the practice last November, the GNCFC said.

The Saiko trade – where trawlers illegally target the main catch of canoe fishers, transfer it at sea to specially adapted boats, and sell the stolen fish back to local communities ­– took an estimated 100,000 tons of fish in 2017.

By Benson Afful