蜜芽传媒

Ghana's government has committed to ensuring 100% electronic monitoring of fishing in the oceans off the country's coast, in a pledge at the One Ocean Conference in Panama City.

With Ghana's fishing industry long plagued by corruption and overfishing, the move is being hailed as an important step in countering unscrupulous fishing fleet operators. It's also hoped it will help Ghana better manage its marine resources and help fishing communities.

On Newsday we heard from Ghana's Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Mavis Hawa Koomson, who told us that this was just the beginning of tackling the problem.

"We are using the Vessel Monitoring System which shows the movement of the vessel on the sea. It's able to determine whether the vessel is fishing at the point they're not supposed to... we want to introduce an electronic monitoring system, which will have cameras, video, and real-time data will be collected... If you are not able to change to the specification we've given you, you're not going to have any license to go fishing."

(Photo shows: fish at a Ghanaian port. Credit: 蜜芽传媒 handout)

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