2025 Closed Fishing Season: Journalists for Responsible Fisheries calls on Government to include Artisanal fishers

The Journalists for Responsible Fisheries and Environment (a Journalists and Media Advocacy Network) has called on President John Dramani Mahama, and the Ministry for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (MoFAD) to reconsider the decision of exempting artisanal fishers from the annual closed fishing season.

According to the group, the current Marine Fisheries Management Plan (2022-2026) enjoins government to enforce fishing closed season for all fleets to ensure rebuilding of the stocks.

The Fisheries Minister, Emelia Arthur had earlier announced that government had cancelled the 2025 closed fishing season for artisanal fishermen and intended to explore other measures to prevent the depletion of the fish stocks.

Journalists for Responsible Fisheries and Environment (JRFE) in a statement signed and issued by the Executive Director, Kingsley Nana Buadu urged the Fisheries Ministry to ensure strict compliance with all scientific measures aimed at replenishing Ghana’s fish stocks.

“After the coming into force of the 2014 Fisheries Management Plan, Ghana has since
2016 been implementing closed season, with the inclusion of the artisanal fishers in
2019 after their inclusion hit a snag in 2018. Unfortunately, the current minister has
announced that artisanal fishers will be exempted from this year’s closed season. We
see this decision as quite worrying considering the fact that Ghana in the last two years
was able to get other countries in the sub-region to implement the closed season for all
fleets”, the statement emphasized.

The statement further indicated that “there are a number of scientific measures being implemented to help replenish Ghana’s fishery resources, and as such the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development and the Fisheries
Commission should endeavor to adhere to the implementation of measures, which include enforcement of fisheries laws, registration and licensing of all canoes, ensure the complete enforcement of the moratorium canoes to avoid over-capacity”.

Also included are; to punish fishers who engage in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), ensure the use of multifilament nets by artisanal fishers, ensure compliance of the
traditional non-fishing days and an additional fishing holiday.

“To ensure that this decision by the ministry does not erode the gains made through the
tireless efforts made by the Academia through the Fisheries scientific working group, Fisheries Commission, NGO’s, Civil Society and the media in recent times, the ministry must as a matter
of urgency ensure the strict enforcement of all other management measures to safeguard Ghana’s fisheries sector”, the statement cautioned.

“It is worth noting that, Section 42 of the Fisheries Act (Act 625) mandates the ministry and commission to ensure that all fishery policies and decisions are based on scientific evidence to avoid over exploitation”.

It indicated that “JRFE has worked in all the four Coastal Regions of the country, complementing the efforts of the state institutions, fishers, fisher associations, academia, NGOs, Civil Society Groups and funding agencies to safeguard Ghana’s fishery resources. It took time, efforts and resources before getting artisanal fishers to appreciate the need to agree and comply to the annual closed season in a bid to replenish fish stocks. The adherence and compliance level last year for instance was phenomenal, an indication that much efforts have gone into education and awareness creation. We cannot take one step forward towards rebuilding the fish stock as a country and take three steps backwards. We cannot fail posterity as millions of Ghanaians depend on artisanal fisheries for their livelihoods, we must safeguard it”.