World Ocean Day: How plastic waste is ‘fighting’ fish in Ghana's oceans

It’s an eyesore, the amount of plastic waste in oceans around the world in recent times. It’s almost as if the quantity is competing with the population of aqualife.

What has become a global problem has seen some countries including the United Kingdom, Kenya, and Bangladesh banning single-use plastics.

The constant introduction of plastic waste from various areas into the sea has very dire consequences on marine life and fish stock.

As part of efforts to create awareness about the importance of preserving Ghana’s oceans and marine life, GhanaWeb’s Wonder Ami Adu-Asare visited the Ga Mashie James Town Beach to interact with some fisherfolks and find out how the menace of plastic pollution is affecting their trade.

“Before now, leaves were used for packaging and for wrapping, even the fish could digest this but the rubber and poly bags don’t decompose, and that is why the fish are dying, they are poisoning the fish. The polythene bags are not helpful,” one fisher, Emmanuel Ofei said, a point which was reiterated by another.

“Before now, we didn’t know anything like plastics or polythene, all we knew were leaves and that’s what the fishes eat. Now the fishes are not there to catch because of plastic waste pollution. Plastic waste is a lot in the sea and it disturbs the fishers a lot. All because of the water they use for water bagging, pure water, etc. They are too many in the sea,” another distraught fisher, Joel Klottey lamented.

According to them, the situation is disheartening because they spend money on fuel and resources but end up getting very little from their catch.

“I used to get a lot of fish before now because there was no use of polythene bags, they were using paper bags and so when we go to sea, there was no rubber in the sea and it helped us get a lot of fish but now we only catch a lot of rubber, and very little fish,” one fisherman noted with worry.

“The plastic waste is so much, we only capture poly bags when we think we have had a good catch,” Obleefo, a fishmonger said.

They asked that government takes urgent steps towards banning the use of plastic in Ghana to ensure a relatively cleaner environment which will subsequently reflect on the condition of Ghana’s waters.

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WA