Ghanaian tuna vessels prepare ahead of international fishing moratorium

Ghanaian tuna vessel owners and operators, like their peers who fish in the Atlantic Ocean worldwide, are gearing up to lay up their vessels ahead of a new international fishing moratorium in the 1st Quarter of 2024.

Set to take effect from the 1st of January to the 13th of March, the closure of the Atlantic Ocean will only apply to Tuna Vessels using Fish Aggregating Devices (FAD), as a conservative measure for the management of tuna and tuna-like species. By being a contracting partner of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), Ghana is obliged to follow through with this directive.

The Executive Director of the Blue Economy and Governance Consult, Richster Nii Amarh Amarfio, while expressing appreciation for this act of conservation, said this move will temporarily create scarcity of tuna on the local market while incurring some cost to the industry.

He was speaking on the GPHA-powered Eye on Port on Accra-based Metro TV.

Mr. Amarfio said the impact of the unavailability of Tuna will be felt after

February with local tuna-manufacturing companies expected to be most affected.

“This is because those who are at sea now will be discharged between now and the end of January. Once we do the supply, we may not get another supply until the end of April when fishing vessels may start coming back from the closure.”

He said the shortage of tuna will be more prominent in Ghana due to local dependence on tunas and the the depletion of the small pelagic like mackerel and sardines. This he said will consequently lead to dependence on imported fish in cold stores.

For tuna vessel operators, Richster said despite being out of operation for the said period, they will be inundated with the payment of staff and crew, security, and license fees among others.

According to Mr. Amarfio, a tuna operator himself, because they are supposed to return on the 13TH of March, in the event operators decide to take a license for the two weeks, they will be required to pay for the whole quarter which is too expensive.

“We pay $135 per gross registered tonnage. So if the vessel weighs 1000GRT, you will pay $135000 for the year, and it is divided into quarters. If I don’t fish for the 1st quarter, it means that 1st quarter will be taken out but if I decide to fish for the two weeks of that quarter, I have to pay for the full quarter,” he explained.

“Our crew and office staff are permanent staff and are paid throughout the year, so closure or no closure we will continue to give them a basic salary and pay for their social security, taxes, and all that whether we are fishing or not. When we lay up our vessels at anchorage, that will come with cost because you need to run auxiliary engines to keep them floating and pump water out of the vessel,”’ he added.

Richster Nii Amarh Amarfio who is the immediate past secretary for the Ghana Tuna Association clarified that tuna vessels are still at liberty to engage in free-school fishing, as opposed to fishing on FAD but that method is not feasible business-wise, and many will not engage in it.