Fishermen living along the coast of West and East Ada have registered their unhappiness with the government for deploying a taskforce to intimidate their work on the sea.
The taskforce are mandated to cease unauthorised fishing practices at sea and destroy fishing gears of fishermen caught in the act.
They are, furthermore, to hand culprits to the police for prosecution.
Unauthorised fishing practices including pair trawling and light fishing, are affecting the fishing industry and as those illegal practices persist on the Ghana waters, the government, some fishermen at Sege and Ada in West and East Ada respectively, told Awake News on the telephone, is preventing them from going to sea when the main culprits, who are the Chinese and Philippine fishermen who use bigger vessels, are not chased to stop the practice.
Alimo Noah, one of the fishermen at Akplabanya, West Ada, said the Chinese and Philippine fishermen are noted for engaging in pair trawling, claiming the government is not oblivious of that, yet it bends the rule against them, the locals, who do not engage in those unlawful practices.
“Our canoes are very small so when we go to sea and we are lucky to make some catches, fine. If we do not get anything, we return home. We do not do light fishing or pair trawling yet the government has deployed taskforce to come after us on the sea, when we are innocent,” Alimo claimed.
He said the closed season, though hit them hard, they ensured that they did not break the law “and why will we do that now when the season has been opened for fishing?,”.
He pleaded with the government to allow them continue with their ‘petty’ fishing devoid of intimidation and rather equip the taskforce and marine police to fight the expatriates engaged in pair trawling and light fishing.
“We don’t do light fishing because we are law-abiding citizens,” he concluded.
By: Umar Sheriff Musah
