Light Fishing Operations in Small-scale Fishing in Ghana – A case study of the Chorkor and Teshie–Nungua fishing communities in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana

Abstract

Coastal fisheries resources play a crucial role in promoting food security and incomes throughout the world. In recent years there has been important concerns all over the world about the overexploitation of wild fish stocks. In many developing coastal countries this overexploitation has been attributed to the increasing demand of fish products and exacerbated by modernization and development of new fishing techniques to increase catch. One of the major problems in the fishing industry is the dwindling levels of fishing output.

Ghana’s fishing levels are increasingly becoming unsustainable due to the use of highly destructive fishing equipment like light attraction equipment. Apart from the periodic shortages of pre-mix fuel, light fishing activities is identified by peasant fishers as a major challenge to their livelihood. The use of light fishing method for fishing also has the potential to negatively impact the profitability of poor fishers who are mainly small-scale artisanal fishers. The damaging effect of light fishing operation in the country and the factors affecting the effective enforcement of the ban on such operation leaves us with lots of uncertainties which this research seeks to unravel. To help develop an effective management response to this challenge the study highlights the factors that make artisanal fishermen flout fishing regulations, identify the possible reasons why the prohibition of light fishing is not effectively enforced, and make necessary recommendations on the measures needed to bring the fisheries regulations closer to the realities on the ground. Different data collection strategies were employed in the study and the data was analyzed qualitatively.

It finds that low penalties and poor enforcement for law-breakers are two of the major problems. The study also finds that, the lack of alternative livelihood opportunities for rural fishers contributes greatly to the increasing pressure on coastal fisheries resources which subsequently leads overexploitation. It therefore recommends that, enforcement is tightened, artisanal fishers should be given more education and be involved in the decision making process.