On Wednesday 2 June, the European Commission announced that it had issued a warning (so-called yellow card) to the Republic of Ghana for its lax approach to the fight against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
According to Virginijus Sinkevičius, the European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Ghana plays an important role in fisheries governance in West Africa. “We, therefore, want to work with Ghana to address the threats that IUU fishing poses to the sustainability of fish stocks, coastal communities, food security and the profits of those fishermen – and women – who follow the rules”.
Ghana is encouraged to take the necessary measures to comply with its international obligations to fight against IUU fishing. The identified shortcomings include illegal transshipments at sea of large quantities of undersized juvenile pelagic species between industrial trawlers and canoes in Ghanaian waters, failures in monitoring, controlling and surveillance of the fleet and non-conformity of the legal framework with Ghana’s international obligations. Ghana’s sanctions against vessels engaging in or supporting IUU fishing activities are neither effective nor a sufficient deterrent.
The Commission also calls on Ghana to ensure effective monitoring and control of the activities of its fishing vessels and to adequately implement its enforcement and sanction system. Another challenge is to ensure that a sound fisheries management system is in place to prevent fish from IUU fishing activities from entering its market or other markets, including the European market.
Ghana had already received a yellow card in November 2013, which was later rescinded in October 2015 after the country had remedied the deficiencies identified. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)