24/09/2024
GREATER ACCRA REGIONAL FC ORGANIZES STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT ON RECHARACTERISATION OF CANOES.
The Greater Accra Regional Fisheries Commission with support from the Ghana Fisheries Recovery Activity (GFRA) organized a regional stakeholder engagement on canoe and inshore recharacterization draft guide on Monday, September 9th 2024 at the NAFAG hall in Tema.
The objective of the stakeholder engagement on re characterization was to discuss the draft guide with stakeholders, deliberate on it and record their input towards finalizing the guide.
The 2022 Ghana Marine Canoe Frame Survey showed that, canoe characterization hinges primarily on the type of gear employed with a notable lack of emphasis on canoe size. This has led fishers to construct canoes based on their financial capabilities without standardized guidelines.
There is therefore a need for re characterization, in order to develop a size-based characterization system for inshore vessels and canoes. Currently canoes are classified into two categories; small and large, however this binary classification does not accurately reflect the diverse range of canoe sizes and capacities.
In view of this, the Fisheries Commission with support from the Ghana Fisheries Recovery Activity (GFRA) have developed a draft guide for re characterization to bridge this gap. The recharacterization is according to canoe sizes, horsepower, gear type and crew number, with canoes sizes categorized into five namely subsistence, small, medium, large and extra-large.
The recharacterization draft guide is to ensure order, coherence and help curb over capacity situation of the Ghanaian fisheries industry. It would also ensure improvement in fisheries management and conservation, enhance safety at sea, increase efficiency and productivity in the artisanal fishing industry, better targeted support and resources for fishermen and a more effective monitoring and enforcement of fishing regulations.
In a presentation on the key aspects of the guide, Madam Hannah Agyei -Boakye, the Regional Director of the Greater Accra Fisheries Commission noted that, there is a need for reclassification because the existing classification, fails to account for the varying capacities and fishing gear used by canoes, overlooks safety concerns as smaller canoes may be overloaded, limits targeted fisheries management and conservation efforts.
She walked participants who comprised of artisanal fishermen, Canoe owners and other stakeholders through the efforts towards recovery of the small pelagic, the need for re characterization, criteria for categorizing canoes and the implementation strategy on the re characterization.
Participants were given the opportunity to deliberate, ask questions and make contributions and suggestions towards the draft guide and make inputs before finalization.
This engagement will continue at the community level in the various zones of the Greater Accra Region.