THE Ketu-South District branch of the Ghana Canoe Fishermen Council (GCFC) has called on the government to ban the use of light in the country’s waters to save the fishing industry from collapse.
The council said it expected the government to back its stated commitment to deal with the menace with action.
It alleged that the practice still persisted in the Greater-Accra, Central and Western regions long after it was curtailed in the Volta Region.
The Ketu-South District Chairman of the GCFC, Mr Seth Abotsi, said at a news conference at Adina that fishermen in the region were not happy with the situation, adding that apart from depleting the fish stock, fishing with light also negatively affected the marine ecology by inhibiting fungal formation.
Mr Abotsi, who is also the Ketu-South District chief fisherman, said the practice also destroyed small fish species that served as feed for the bigger fishes and thus compelled them to go deeper into the sea.
“The quality and taste of the fish caught through the practice are also affected,” he lamented.
Mr Abotsi said agitation were however brewing among fishermen in the region to return to the use of light in fishing, alleging that fishing companies and fishermen from the Greater Accra and Western regions had encroached on the region and were using light in their activities.
He said the youth in the fishing communities were ready to combat the illegal practice if the Ghana Navy was not prepared to do so.
The chief fisherman appealed to the government to introduce a subsidy regime for fishermen to enable them to procure fishing gadgets, including nets and outboard motors, at affordable prices.
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