University Don vows to address challenges facing the fishing industry

The Director of the Centre for Coastal Management(CCM) and the Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECoR) at the University of Cape Coast(UCC), Prof Denis Worlanyo Aheto has promised to engage coastal communities on challenges being encountered in the fishing Industry,  in a bid to address some of the problems.

He was worried about marine pollution, particularly a lot of plastic waste in the ocean,  with its resultant effects causing erosion at the beaches.

Prof Worlanyo Aheto made this known as part of the Centre for Coastal Management’s 10th anniversary celebration launch at the University of Cape Coast.

The Anniversary was held with the theme; “Celebrating a Decade of Impactful Reseach and Capacity Building: Towards Sustainability and Resilience of Africa’s Coastal and Marine Environment”.

Prof Worlanyo Aheto revealed that over the last 10 years, “the Centre for Coastal Management with support from their partners has awarded scholarship to 400 students of the CCM programme to promote coastal community education and outreach”.

“Over the years we have grown to become a centre of excellence recognized by the world Bank and other very key stakeholders in the centre”,  he disclosed.

Prof Worlanyo Aheto who doubles as an Associate Professor in Coastal Ecology and has professional training in project management observed that the issues of the fisheries sector were enormous.

“A fisher needs to be told, that too much input into the work will further impoverish them”.

Prof Worlanyo Aheto therefore endorsed August as the best month for the closed season to allow the fish stock to breed.

“I think we need to accept the issue of closed season as a country because it’s not just happening in Ghana. It is a Science based approach where we close the sea for a season to allow the fish stock to breed”, the Associate Professor lamented.

According to him, “Ghana has decided to embark on a closed season which is fine for all industry and artisanal players. The major issue has not been so much with the industry but with the artisanal sector because the timing that the fishers want to do the fishing is usually different from what the Science is saying”.

Source: Gnewsprime.com