Ahead of closed season: Fisherfolks rant over imminent hardship

Fisher folks at the Abrofo Mpoano landing beach adjacent the Cape Coast Castle have ranted over the closure of the sea scheduled for Saturday, July 1.

The livid fishermen and fishmongers, taking a swipe at government and lamenting the economic hardship in the country, said the closed season would worsen their plight.

The closed season is a science-driven government policy which stops all fishing activities on the sea for a period aimed at replenishing the country’s depleting fish stock.

But the fishers said the intervention had yielded no positive results since it was introduced and so it must be cancelled.

A visit to the landing beach Friday saw a lively atmosphere with multitudes jostling one another and scrambling over the relatively fewer catch made by the fishermen.

Most of the bigger canoes had been parked on the beach in compliance with the sea closure.

Every fisherman and fish monger who spoke with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said they were not prepared for the closed season because they had not made any savings and had no alternative source of living.

For many, they have taken loans from various financial institutions for their business and shuddered the closed season would land them in trouble.

While some of them thought it must be cancelled, other suggested it should be moved to March and April where there was little activity on the sea.

“We are really suffering. This is our only means of survival, but the government does not seem to care about that.

“Any time they close the sea, the fish leave our territory to other places and so we don’t get enough fish when they open it,” a fisher monger, Maame Esi Kruma, said.

A fisherman, Yaw Ntsiful, citing the expensive cost of premix fuel and other factors contributing to the cost of living, said the closed season was uncalled for.

“I spend more than GHS5,000 on premixed fuel alone and mostly come back with nothing. Our creditors are breathing down our necks and we are barely surviving.

So, you can imagine what the closed season will bring upon us,” he said.

“We are yet to receive any support from government for the season. In fact, we will reject it when they bring because it will not change anything,” another fish monger, Ama Bronya, said.