The Ghana Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (MOFAD) is hosting a jointly-organized two-day national working group (NWG) meeting with Stop Illegal Fishing (SIF) and the West Africa Task Force (WATF) of the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) in Tema, Ghana on June 12th and 13th 2019. The 2019 NWG in Ghana is focused on improving interagency collaboration in Monitoring Control and Surveillance (MCS) in fisheries management.

The meeting brings together representatives from 15 national agencies including Ghana’s Fisheries Commission, Fisheries Enforcement Unit, Police, Ports & Harbours Authority, Air Force, Customs Division, Bureau of National Investigation, National Security, Food and Drugs Authority, Port Health, Attorney General’s Department, Maritime Authority, Narcotics Control Board and Multinational Maritime Coordination Center Zone F.

The meeting aims to discuss capacity development, mapping and identification of gaps; communication, awareness and support for Ghana’s accession to the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA); and to deepen future cooperation to tackle IUU fishing and related crimes.

In opening remarks read on behalf of Seraphin Dedi, FCWC Secretary-General, Abena Asante, FCWC Fisheries Advisor, encouraged the identified key actors to take full ownership of the NWG and to see their activities as a national tool to attract technical support to implement PSMA, transhipment strategy and other regional and internal initiatives to address all Illegal fishing activities.

She emphasised the need for the Ghana NWG to facilitate collaboration and support the interagency cooperation between existing agencies, identify national gaps and plan activities together to address issues under the current PESCAO [project], SIF/FAO/GiZ project and the TMT/NORAD initiative in support to Ghana.