An open letter from the Ghana National
Canoe Fishermen’s Council and eight NGOs has called on Ghana’s
President to intervene to end the damaging illegal fishing practice
known as ‘saiko’.
This practice is driving crucial fish
stocks to the point of collapse and endangering Ghanaian livelihoods,
nutrition and national security.
Saiko is a severely destructive
form of illegal fishing, where industrial trawlers target the staple
catch of canoe fishers and sell this fish back to local communities at a
profit. It takes jobs, threatens food security, and endangers Ghana’s
economy.
Trawlers are able to hoover up vast quantities of ‘small
pelagic’ fish such as sardinella – the main catch of the local canoe
fishers and a crucial part of the nation’s diet. Researchers predict
their total loss within under five years unless urgent action is taken.
“If
this menace is not urgently addressed and measures instituted to
permanently eradicate it, the source of income for over 2.7 million
Ghanaians will be lost,” says the open letter. It highlights that saiko
provides jobs to no more than 1,500 individuals whereas canoe fisheries
provide 140,000 jobs to fishers alone, and many thousands more as
fishmongers – the majority of whom are women – traders, canoe carvers,
input suppliers and fish carriers.
In 2017 alone the saiko trade
took around 100,000 tonnes of fish, worth over US$ 50 million when sold
at the landing site. Saiko is costing Ghanaians millions of dollars
annually and threatening coastal livelihoods.
The letter also
highlights the risk of unrest and threats to national security: “The
loss of jobs amongst the youth will contribute to the rise of social
vices and crime within the fishing communities and our wider society.
The collapse of the people’s fish will further undermine your
government’s vitally important “Planting for Food and Jobs” agenda.”
“We
note, with urgency, that any hope of saving Ghana’s fisheries from
collapse is contingent on ending the saiko menace without delay,” says
the letter. “We note also that in the context of the global COVID-19
pandemic, safeguarding livelihoods and food security has acquired an
even more pressing urgency.”
Steve Trent, Executive Director of
the Environmental Justice Foundation, one of the signatories to the
letter, said: “Ending saiko will be a marker of the President’s
leadership. It will be of great importance to the people and Ghanaian
nation, delivering an overwhelmingly positive legacy for the President.
It will enhance food security and safeguard jobs; it will stimulate the
economy and boost the well-being of the nation. The fishing industry,
from law-abiding trawler operators to small-scale canoe fishers, is in
favour of eradicating the crime of saiko fishing. Only the criminals who
run this illegitimate, destructive business are opposed.”
Notes for editors
Read the letter.
Read EJF’s report on saiko: Stolen at Sea
List of signatories to the letter:
Hen Mpoano
Livestock and Fisheries Chamber
Cerath Development Organisation
Environmental Justice Foundation
CEMLAWS AFRICA
Oxfam in Ghana
CARE International Ghana
Friends of the Nation
Key facts
Industrial
trawlers in Ghana are owned almost exclusively by Chinese operators,
who use Ghanaian ‘front’ companies to bypass laws forbidding any foreign
ownership or control of industrial trawl vessels flying Ghana’s flag.
EJF has revealed that over 90% of industrial trawlers licensed in Ghana
are linked to Chinese ownership.
New vessels have continued to
arrive from China, despite a February 2012 moratorium on new industrial
trawlers entering Ghanaian waters to address severe depletion of fish
stocks. Of the 68 industrial trawl vessels licensed to fish in Ghana
from March-June 2018, at least half were built in 2013 or later, after
the moratorium on new or replacement vessels came into effect.
2.7 million people in Ghana rely on small pelagic fish for their food and income.
Saiko
catches in 2017 were worth US$ 40.6 – 50.7 million when sold at sea,
and US$ 52.7 – 81.1 million when sold at the landing site.
In
2017 industrial trawlers caught almost the same amount of fish as the
entire artisanal sector, when illegal and unreported catches are taken
into account. That is 76 trawlers catching approximately the same amount
of fish as over 12,000 canoes or 100,000 fishers.
While canoe fishing offers direct employment for around 60 fishers for every 100 tonnes of fish, saiko means only 1.5 jobs per 100 tonnes – 40 times fewer.
