Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Mrs. Mavis Hawa Koomson, has pooh-poohed former President John Dramani Mahama over his promise to ban the close season instituted for fishing in the country if he is re-elected.
The former President whilst addressing scores of delegates and supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem and Cape Coast promised that the next NDC-led government will implement a ‘closed season’ for only industrial fishing trawlers.
He indicated that subsistence fishing will not have closed seasons because the increasing number of industrial fishing vessels and their illegal fishing practices on Ghana’s territorial waters is the major cause of the depletion of marine stocks in the country.
“Artisanal fishers would be allowed to operate during the closed season to support their livelihoods. When the NDC takes over the reins of government, the law on closed season will not affect small-scale fishermen who use canoes. It is the big trawlers that will not be allowed to fish during the closed season
“The canoe fishermen are not the ones destroying the sea but the heavy industrial trawlers who fish beyond their nautical miles amidst all forms of illegal fishing practices,” former President Mahama stated.
However, Mrs Hawa Koomson in response to this promise an interaction with the media on the side-lines of a stakeholder engagement to assess the 2022 closed season, on Friday, stated that the former president was only politicising the issue of fishing closed seasons.
She said Mr. Mahama had the chance as president to stop illegal fishing activities on Ghana’s territorial waters but he failed miserably.
“I have realised that politicians sometimes try to deceive our fisherfolks because they think they are just fishers and they don’t know what is happening in the country.
“We should not allow politicians to use these people. Nobody should come and promise that if he becomes president, he will cancel the closed seasons.
“He was a president of Ghana, under his watch there were a lot of illegal fishing activities on our waters and our fishers were crying. The EU was even worried about the illegal fishing activities on our waters but he was not able to stop them. It took His Excellence Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, through Mavis Hawa Koomson, to stop these illegal activities,” the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development reiterated in Twi.
She pointed out that the closed season is needed to help ensure that there is no depletion or decline of fish stocks in the nation’s water bodies.
The Minister has therefore urged fishers to save for the closed season so that their livelihood will not be grossly impacted during the season.
