Fishermen across the country’s four coastal regions have started a one-week protest against the activities of Saiko, the transhipment of fish at sea.
This follows the airing of a JoyNews hotline documentary ‘Saiko: When the last fish is caught’ that investigated the activities of industrial trawlers on high seas.
Among other revelations, the industrial trawlers were caught using under-sized net to catch small fishes and later throw the dead fishes that were undesirable to them back into the sea.
Speaking to JoyNews’ Richard Kwadwo Nyarko, the fishermen said they are fortified by the revelations in the documentary.
They said although they are in their bumper season, they often return with empty nets, a situation that’s killing the fishing industry.
The men, who have begun their strike, said they want the government to ban the activities of Saiko to save the fishing industry.
At a press conference attended by JoyNews’, red flags had been hanged on canoes that usually host flags of football teams or countries.
The fishermen, fishmongers and their children were all seen clad in red to press home the protest against what they consider a serious threat to their livelihoods.
The move, the fishermen told JoyNews is to demonstrate to government how serious the fight against Saiko has become and the need for the Fisheries Ministry and the Fisheries Commission to go beyond mere rhetoric and ban the activities of the foreign vessels.
A spokesperson for the aggrieved fishermen, Nana Kweigya told JoyNews the deafening silence on the fight against saiko by the government is worrying.
“In the 2020 budget, paragraph 718, government made a specific statement of stopping Saiko, but we have not witnessed that. So we are calling on the highest office of the land, the President and the government to live by their words of stopping Saiko,” he averred.
Nana Kweigya added that government’s intervention at this crucial moment, is critical to saving the over three million people that directly depend on the sea.
“Saiko has been found to be a severely destructive form of illegal fishing, which in addition to driving the decline in marine fish stock, destroys the marine environment, and erode the potential to rebuild marine resources,” he said.
Across the four regions, the 7-day protest has been activated to put pressure on government to end the menace of saiko.
The fishermen added that they will embark on a series of street protests should government do nothing about their situation.
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Source: JoyOnline