VZCZCXRO0779
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHAR #0523/01 1551648
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 041648Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY ACCRA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7897
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHPC/AMEMBASSY LOME 2214
RUEHCO/AMEMBASSY COTONOU 0857
RUEHAB/AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN 0850
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 0825
RUEHFN/AMEMBASSY FREETOWN 0435
RUEHMV/AMEMBASSY MONROVIA 0837
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 0927

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ACCRA 000523 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EFIS SENV XA GH
SUBJECT: Tackling Illegal Fishing in Ghana 
 
REF:Accra 416 
 
¶1. Summary:  The Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance (MCS) 
Department under the Fisheries Commission is charged with combating 
illegal, unregulated, and underreported (IUU) fishing. A site visit 
to the port of Tema highlighted many enforcement challenges facing 
MCS notably the recent expiration of the company contract to place 
transponders on vessels.  The recent discovery of oil offshore will 
also divert needed naval resources from MCS to combat IUU fishing. 
End Summary. 
 
Political Transition: Impact on Ministry of Fisheries 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
¶2. The newly elected GOG moved the Ministry of Fisheries under the 
Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA).  Formally, MoFA is the lead 
for policies governing fishing and aquaculture, but a Fisheries 
Commission is charged with drafting and implementing the policies. 
The commission is an inter-ministerial group of technical experts 
and overseas five departments: Marine Research, Marine Fisheries, 
Finance and Administration, Monitoring Control and Surveillance 
(MCS), and Aquaculture.  Comment--Politically, this reorganization 
makes the director of Fisheries subject to the directives of the 
minister of MoFA regarding fisheries management. 
 
Illegal, Unregulated, and Underreported (IUU) Fishing 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
¶3. The GOG is keenly aware of the economic cost that IUU fishing 
exacts from the national economy.  In a briefing with the Director 
of MCS numerous measures against IUU fishing were addressed, 
including: placing transponders on all licensed Ghanaian vessels, 
limiting inputs through minimum mesh sizes, restricting use on 
non-selective gears, prohibiting the use of new vessels, sea 
observer programs with the Ghanaian Navy, and quayside inspection at 
the major ports of Tema, Sekondi and Takoradi. 
 
¶4. IUU fishing also remains problematic at inland waterways 
especially at Lake Volta.  Community Base Fisheries Management 
Committees have been used to combat this issue but there have been 
operational issues establishing them at the local levels and 
developing methods to resolve conflicts.  These Community Committees 
as well as District Fisheries Management Committees represent a 
concerted attempt to decentralize fishery management to the local 
level. 
 
Enforcement Challenges in the Port of Tema 
------------------------------------------ 
¶5. Regional environmental officer and assistant visited the port of 
Tema to be briefed by quayside inspectors working for MCS.  The port 
receives industrial, semi-industrial, and artisanal fishing vessels. 
 The industrial fleet consists of trawlers and tuna boats.  Pair 
trawlers were in the port but decommissioned.  All vessels were 
Ghanaian-flagged and owned but crews were roughly 25 percent foreign 
and 75 percent Ghanaian.  Typically, captains were foreign nationals 
with the trawlers headed by Chinese and the tuna boats by Koreans. 
 
 
¶6. Numerous challenges were stated by the inspectors: an inability 
to detect illegal nets, a lack of observers on the trawlers, 
transponders on boats are no longer in use (company contract 
expired), unloading of fish at non-Ghanaian ports, especially 
Abidjan (this practice is illegal for Ghanaian-flagged vessels), 
selling of fish outside of the port to small artisanal boats, 
observers on board tuna boats only during the moratorium season, no 
insurance for inspectors, and a lack of political will to prosecute 
infractions when reports are submitted.  Inspectors work from 8:30 
AM to 5:00 PM during the week; however, the port is open from 7 AM 
to 6 PM and on weekends allowing for ships to unload uninspected. 
Tuna boats were also seen carrying large hauls of bamboo which are 
used to aggregate the tuna to more easily catch.  This is illegal 
under Ghanaian law and when the inspectors were pressed about this 
they said that the tuna are caught outside of Ghana's EEZ and 
therefore out of their jurisdiction. 
 
Comment: Monitoring, Control and Surveillance in Ghana 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
¶7. While many regulations are in place under Ghanaian law to combat 
IUU, implementation remains a major challenge.  Outside of the 
ports, limited MCS is conducted by the Ghanaian Navy using patrol 
boats and--until recently--monitoring via the transponders on board. 
 With the recent discovery of off-shore oil, the Ghanaian Navy will 
focus its efforts on securing this new found resource and may 
further limit enforcement of IUU fishing.  Also, artisanal fishermen 
often congregate near platforms and rigs, creating a hazard for them 
and for the platform equipment and operators. 
 
 
ACCRA 00000523  002 OF 002 
 
 
¶8. On the positive side, a sub-regional fisheries committee based in 
Tema, Ghana for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (Benin, Cote 
d'Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Togo, and Nigeria) aims to pool resources 
to conserve and sustainably manage biological marine resources, 
including a newly established IUU permanent working group. 
 
 
TEITELBAUM