Industrial fishing trawlers have begun their two-month closed season starting today, August 1.
This is in line with the closed seasons imposed on fishing activities by the government.
The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, says it is engaging stakeholders to ensure a successful implementation of the closed season, after the earlier ban that was targeted at artisanal fishermen.
The moratorium is a strategic measure under the National Marine Fisheries Management Plan (2015-2019) prepared in accordance with Section 42 of the Fisheries Act (Act625) to help restore dwindling fish stock in the sea.
Trawlers from third-party countries will still be able to fish but under the scrutiny of an observer from the Monitoring Control and Surveillance Division of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Ministry.
But questions have been raised about the measurement of the effect of the closed season.
Some fishermen have complained that their closed season has not resulted in any significant improvement in fish yield.
Speaking to Citi News, a fisheries industry player, Richster Nii Amarteifio, said the government needed to consider permanent closures of certain areas to better asses outcomes.
“We need to identify key sensitive areas and close them permanently. If we do that, you are likely to be able to measure the impact because you have closed specific areas and nobody is fishing around those areas.”
If you do a general closure and we have some part of the industry still fishing and others not fishing, measuring the impact will be very very difficult and I doubt we will be able to do a proper assessment of the impact.”