Fishermen bringing their catch to shore
A 2020 Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) report has revealed that the contribution of the fisheries sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined from 1.5 per cent in 2015 to 0.9 per cent in 2019.
This was due to the overexploitation of the resources.
It was also revealed that the sector employs about 10 per cent of the population as fishers, processors, boat owners, boat builders and others in ancillary jobs.
According to the 2020 report of the Fisheries Commission (FC), direct workforce for the industry include about 140,000 fishermen in the four Costa regions of the country.
This came to light at a training workshop on small pelagic fisheries reporting for selected journalists in the Western and Central Regions, in Cape Coast.
The two-day workshop was aimed at increasing  the understanding of journalists on the status of Ghana’s small pelagic fisheries and enhance media advocacy on small pelagic fish stock recovery.
Hen Mpoano, an implementing partner of the Feed the Future Ghana Fisheries Recovery Activity (GFRA), is the organizer of the programme.
The GFRA is a five-year project (2021 – 2026) Funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) supporting the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (MoFAD) and the Fisheries Commission (FC).
The objective of the project is to mitigate the near collapse of Ghana’s small pelagic fisheries, including sardines, mackerel, and anchovies while improving the socioeconomic well-being, food security, and resilience of fishers and coastal communities.
Afedzie Abdullah, Communications Specialist with Hen Mpoano, explained that the workshop is also expected to boost the understanding of the journalists in the fisheries sector and equip them with the requisite capabilities to provide quality reportage on the sector.
“It is also expected that the participating journalists will become media advocates for the recovery of the small pelagic fish stock in Ghana”.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Cape Coast