Nii Ashitey Odamtey II, Tema Chief Fisherman, has revealed that preserving Ghana’s marine fisheries goes beyond replacing fish stock; instead, it is mitigating human activities such as pollution, and habitat destruction, among others.
The ocean has been a significant source of income, solving unemployment problems, oxygen among others, and any activity that would lead to the destruction of the ocean must be abolished, Nii Ashitey Odamptey II revealed, urging fishers and Ghanaians to adopt positive attitudes that would help preserve and conserve the ocean for future generations.
Nii Odamtey made these assertions in an interview in Tema after a beach clean-up exercise organized by Pioneering Food Cannery (PFC).
“The preservation of marine life does not only have to do with replacing the fish population, but also mitigating human activities such as pollution, habitat destructions, overfishing, and a lot more.”
Nii Ashitey Odamptey II
Ghanaian water bodies full of plastics
He said dumping waste into water bodies is one of the environmental concerns affecting the world at large, adding that the injury of the ocean is also damaging to animal protein essential to human health, loss of jobs linked to the oceans, and others.
“The ocean preservation is key in resisting global climate challenges. The ocean feeds about 3.7 million people globally, and if we cannot cater to the ocean, then we are harming ourselves.”
Nii Ashitey Odamptey II
Nii Odamtey explained that aquatic lives would be lost due to indiscriminate human activities on land, including plastic waste disposal into the ocean.
“When it rains and you stand around the Chemu Lagoon, you will see the lagoon carrying a lot of plastics into the sea,” he said.
He called on the stakeholders to provide all the necessary tools for the implementation of the Operation Clean your Frontage initiative to reduce the rate at which people deposited industrial and domestic waste into water bodies.
Fisheries Ministry called to design climate smart-fishing activities
A recent study sheds light on the dangers on Ghanaian water bodies and has cautioned the Fishery Ministry to properly design climate change mitigation measures for Ghana’s water bodies as fishers’ livelihoods worsen.
The study called on the Marine Fisheries Research Division to carefully design planned interventions to address the climate vulnerabilities fishers in the coastal regions of Ghana face, adding that trawlers on the Ghanaian sea are regulated.
“The Fisheries Ministry should design ‘climate smart-fishing activities’ for fishers to adhere to safe fishing practices, educate the general public to keep Ghana’s water bodies free and clean from waste materials, and restock Ghana waters with fingerlings yearly to improve the livelihoods of these fishers.”
Study reveals
Many experts are of the view that the Green Ghana initiative should be targeted at Ghana’s water bodies. Because trees help clean the air people breathe, filter the water they drink and provide habitat to over 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity.
Planting of trees should not only be in forest regions but in coastal regions of Ghana, said the Experts.
READ ALSO: Agric Produce Are Perishable, Establish Modern Processing Plant Factories- GAWU
