The Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) and its partners in the West Africa Task Force (WATF) – Stop Illegal Fishing (SIF) and TMT – together with Global Fishing Watch (GFW) held a three-day national working group meeting under the auspices of the MCS Division (MCSD) of Ghana Fisheries Commission (FC) from 28-30 April 2025 in Tema, Ghana.
The interagency workshop brought together WATF Technical Team members with representatives from five of Ghana’s monitoring, control and surveillance agencies—the MCS Division of the FC, Port, Navy, Maritime Authority, and Marine Police—to discuss the status of fisheries interagency cooperation in Ghana and its role in the implementation of the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) and foster improved coordination between the national Fisheries Monitoring Centre (FMC) and the FCWC Regional MCS Centre (RMCSC).
The role of the FCWC Regional MCS Centre was discussed, particularly in its potential to provide technical support (through integrated VMS technologies) and generate funding for Member States’ FMCs through the establishment of the FCWC Regional Record of Authorised Fishing Vessels (RRAFV). The workshop also addressed ongoing efforts to implement the PSMA, highlighting the importance of control at the port of entry. Notably, a risk assessment unit has been established within the MCS Division to enhance risk profiling as part of AREP evaluations. Ghana is considering the legal recognition of AIS data in fisheries enforcement in the review of its current fisheries act
SIF expert Per Erik Bergh led discussions on the risk assessment dimensions of PSMA implementation and law enforcement, providing clarification that while IUU fishing falls within the fisheries mandate, not all fisheries crimes do. IUU fishing is a reliable risk indicator for broader legal violations, including those related to labour and safety, which is why interagency cooperation is so important.
The workshop also surfaced several interagency challenges: insufficient information-sharing frameworks, limited interagency training, siloed operations, and disparities in defining infractions across institutions. Participants agreed on the need to move from basic interagency cooperation to interagency operations.
Concerns were raised about the exclusion of fisheries staff in container inspection teams, especially given the risk that fish products might bypass scrutiny and thus go unrecorded in national landing statistics.
Ghana is already implementing two Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for AREP analysis and port inspection. These SOPs are to inform the model SOPs that will be developed for the broader region in supporting the implementation of PSMA requirements . Building on this progress, Ghana is currently developing two additional SOPs — one focused on communication between the MCS Division and flag states of fishing vessels, and another addressing decision-making and enforcement procedures.
The meeting concluded after participants received a presentation on updates to the Vessel Viewer application, jointly developed by TMT and GFW, followed by hands-on sessions, using it in real-time risk analysis of AREPs.
