Boost for fisheries sector with new vessel monitoring centre established

The Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC), an intergovernmental organisation with its headquarters in Tema, Ghana, has set up its Regional Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Centre (RMCSC), a new centre for monitoring fishing and related activities in the Gulf of Guinea.

The centre is scheduled to be launched on May 12 at an event to be attended by FCWC Chairperson and current Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries for Benin, M. Gaston Dossouhoui; the Ambassador of the European Union Delegation to Ghana, Diana Acconcia; and Ghana’s Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Mavis Hawa Koomson.

“The establishment of the Regional MCS Centre fulfils a number of long sought-after goals, including: to improve national and regional capacity in fisheries enforcement; greater information-sharing; to reduce costs to member states; and to increase oversight of vessel activity to address global challenges in combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and related fisheries crimes.

The RMCSC’s establishment brings us a step closer to having coordinated approaches to joint action, including patrols for better security in the maritime domain of our region,” said Seraphin Dedi, Secretary-General of the FCWC.

The RMCSC will develop and support vessel monitoring and analysis to support coordinated efforts of fisheries inspection at port and at sea.

It will also host a regional record of authorised fishing vessels to maintain an up-to-date and easy-to-access list of authorised and IUU listed fishing vessels.

The RMCSC will furthermore coordinate regional and joint at-sea patrols to identify vessels operating illegally, without authorisation, or in contravention of national or regional conservation and management measures, and also undertake a regional observer programme to enforce compliance as well as provide training and capacity building.

The RMCSC has been established under the European Union-funded Improved Regional Fisheries Governance (PESCAO) project to allow member states to track and monitor fishing activities across the region.

The RMCSC, which has been operational since April 2020, is located in the Fisheries Research Institute building in Tema.

Established in 2007, the FCWC facilitates cooperation in fisheries management between its member countries: Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria.

The countries have several shared fish stocks and have identified a need for cooperation and shared management of these resources.