The Law of Marine Fishing: Challenges and Coping Strategies for Sustainable Marine Fishing in Ghana

Abstract

Waters off the coasts of West Africa are very rich with many different types of fish and marine life. Some species like sardines, tuna, mackerel, tilapia and shrimps are important to many local communities and economies in West Africa. However, the current overfishing of these fish affects the sustainability of fishery industry. Despite Ghana ratifying to a number of international marine laws to ensure a sustainable marine fishing, there seem to be some challenges that are associated with marine fishing in Ghana. This paper further examines the strategies that have been employed by the fishing community and the fisheries ministry in Ghana as a response to restrictive measures for the challenges identified and discussed in literature. This paper is fundamentally an extensive review of marine fisheries literature. In general terms, it was found that, Ghana has ratified to a number of international marine laws including the UNCLOS.

Impact of COVID-19 and closed fishing season on commercial fishers of Davao Gulf, Mindanao, Philippines

“…Considering that fishing is their primary source of income, this fishing regulation has created panic in the lives of fishers and their families, especially among commercial fishers. In the study of Chimba and Musuka (2014) , fishers that entirely depend on fishing as their source of food and income were economically handicapped as their alternative sources of income could not sustain them during the closed fishing season of the year ( Justice et al, 2020 ). In the case of the Davao Gulf commercial fishers, the closed fishing season somehow provides opportunities for them to engage in various income-generating activities.…”