Kedzikope residents wage war on illegal fishing

Residents of Kedzikope in the Keta Municipality of the Volta region are waging war on illegal fishing practices in the community.

The fisher folks have formed monitoring groups to check illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and its threat to the sustainability of fisheries resource in the area.

The group, IUU Committee, vowed to put an end to fishing activities conducted in contravention of the country’s laws and regulations and those adopted at the regional level including the use of under-size mesh, light fishing, fishing with explosives and pair trawling.

Mr Kofi Agbemava, a teacher and IUU Committee member, said the group had made progress in the war on illegal fishing, especially against the capture of marine mammals and would continually ensure that such activities were stopped in the area.

Mr Michael Bumegbe, Chief fisherman, Kedzikope and chairman of IUU Committee, disclosed that the committee was formed through the support of Far Ban Bo project and had members voluntarily joining to protect the fisheries resource in the sea.

This came to light during an interactive session with stakeholders in the fishing sector at Kedzikope during a visit by European Union representatives from Accra to verify Far Ban Bo "protecting the fishing livelihoods" project in the community.

Mr Scott Apawudza, Volta Regional Director, Fisheries Commission, commended the consortium CARE (the lead), Friends of the Nation (FoN) and Oxfam for implementing the EU funded four-year fisheries governance project and called for the support of other stakeholders to address the challenges of overfishing and unsustainable fishing practices.

Torgbui Kpemini Gawu V, Chief of Whuti in the Anloga District where the team also met with traditional leaders and other fisher groups, was grateful for the project.

Torgbui Gawu, enthusiastic of securing the coastlines of Whuti, appealed to the project implementers to speed up processes to help the community map out the landing beaches for demarcation.