Fishers in NKetepa, a fishing Community in Kwahu East District of the Eastern Region on Saturday, June 6, 2020, caught a rare marine mammal in Afram River.
It took the tedious efforts of many fishers in the area to pull the mammal trapped in the fishing net to shore.
The creature which looks like a manatee or sea cow was eventually killed and meat gobbly shared among the fishers.
Assembly Member for the area Yaw Bossu told mybrytfmonline.com it was the second time fishers in the area have bycatch such marine mammal although other Communities around have been bycatching it.
There have been many instances of so-called accidental catching of rare marine mammal species by fishers operating on the Afram River.
By catching, though the serious threat to the existence of endangered aquatic species, it receives little or no attention by the Fisheries Ministry in Ghana.
The Kwahu- NKetepa incidents call for exigent action to fix this problem through awareness and enforcement fishing laws.
Ghana has no data on these incidents despite its prevalence in fishing Communities.
Globally, it is estimated that 40% of fish caught worldwide are unintentionally caught and are partly thrown back into the sea, either dead or dying or illegal consumed.
Statistics indicate that a total of 38 million tonnes of sea creatures are unintentionally caught. This represents 40% of fish caught worldwide.
According to experts, drift nets and gillnet operations are among the most dangerous fishing techniques that trap these marine mammals.
Marine turtles, Cetacean, young fishes, Seabirds, sharks, corals and, invertebrates are most victims of by catching.
In October 2014 USAID/Ghana awarded CRC/URI a five-year cooperative agreement to lead the Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP).
The goal of the project was to rebuild targeted marine fish stocks that have seen major declines in landings in decades, particularly the small pelagic fisheries that are important for food security and are the mainstay of the small-scale fishing sector.
CRC leads a consortium of partners tasked with an integrated suite of activities including Improved legal enabling conditions for implementing co-management, use rights, capacity and effort-reduction strategies, Improved information systems and science-informed decision-making, and
Increased constituencies that provide the political will and public support necessary to make the hard choices and changed behavior needed to rebuild Ghana’s marine fisheries sector.
These components feed into applied management initiatives for several targeted fisheries ecosystems.
While preventing depletion of the fish population in water bodies in Ghana, a critical look must be taken into by catching menace which also has rippling implications on aquatic life.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Obed Ansah