The Navy, at the week-end, called on all stakeholders in the fishing industry to find a lasting solution to the problem of using light and other chemicals for fishing expedition in order to protect the industry from collapse.
The Navy has noted with concern that the usage of illegal method for fishing tended to deplete the fishery resources, which would be difficult to re-stock Ghana's territorial waters. Commander Bethel Fosuhene Asante, Commanding Officer of the Easter Naval Command (Naval Base) made the call at Tema.
He was addressing representatives of stakeholders in the fishing industry at a seminar aimed at educating them on the harmful effects to the economy for using unorthodox method for fishing.
The two-day seminar was organized by the Corporate Social Responsibility Movement (CSRM), a Tema based non-governmental organization on the environment.
He spoke on the theme: “Protecting the marine resource for posterity" and tackled issues like the light fishing and the role of Ghana Navy in protecting the marine environmentâ€.
All the fishing societies think that the method they have been adopting is profitable to them because they catch more fish during expedition, ignorant of the fact that they are gradually depleting the stock for posterity, which would have negative impact on the economy.
While the fishing trawlers, popularly known as the “lagay lagay†at the Fishing harbor insist on using light for fishing the canoe fishermen see it as sabotage as the practice drive the fish deep sea, thus leaving them without enough catch.