The invasion of aquatic weeds on the Kpong stretch of the Volta lake in Lower Manya Krobo in Eastern region is affecting the fishing economy .
The entire stretch of the lake has been overgrown with weeds threatening aquatic life and making it difficult for fishermen have enough catch.
The Kpong stretch of the Volta lake has been invaded by aquatic weeds affecting fishing in the area .
The weeds are however removed by the Volta River Authority every year but keeps growing in the entire stretch.
Fishermen in the area say the presence of the weed is affecting fishing in the lake.Aquatic weeds can assimilate large quantities of nutrients from the water reducing their availability for planktonic algae. They may also cause reduction in oxygen levels and present gaseous exchange with water resulting in adverse fish production.
The Fish sellers also complained the low catch coupled with premix fuel shortage is pushing prices of fish to the rooftop.
It was however observed that VRA has deployed Aquatic weed harvesters machines clearing the invasive aquatic plants and nuisance algae in the volta lake but the machines were not working during the visit.
Ghana produces below 600,000 metric tones of fishes out the the country’s annual fish of 1.2million metric tones.
More worrying is that fact that Ghana’s protein source is about 60% from fish whilst annual capital consumption is the highest in the west coast with 25kg.
Source :Mybrytfmonline.com/Obed Ansah
