Fishermen both young and old, fishmongers and the entire fishing community broke out in excitement singing and shouting as the Minister used a big key to ‘open’ the sea to signify the end of the closed season, which started on Friday, July 01 and ended on Monday, August 01.

The closed season backed by the Fisheries Act 625 and amended by Fisheries (Amendment)Act 880, forms part of strategies by government and agreed upon by stakeholders to reduce excessive fishing pressure and over exploitation of the country’s fish stock and, therefore, a stock recovery strategy.

Mrs Koomson cautioned that the law had come to stay, hence, it should be devoid of unnecessary criticisms and politicization just to frustrate fisher folks.

“The closed season has come to stay because it is backed by law neither the NPP nor the NDC can cancel it in the country,” she added.

Mrs Koomson noted that it was also to allow recovery of overexploited fish stocks and help rebuild the depleted stocks to improve on the livelihood of the fishing community.

She indicated that sustainable management of fisheries was a collective effort, hence, urged the fisher-folks to abide by the rules of engagement of the industry.

Mrs Koomson noted that the direct resource and beneficiaries of fisheries must take responsibility to ensure sustainability to improve the sector for the betterment of all.

Additionally, the Minister advised the fishers to do away with illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing practices such as use of undersize mesh, DDT, light fishing, among others.

She assured that the Ministry’s Fisheries Enforcement Unit would be empowered to increase patrols, arrest offenders, and prosecute them.

“The attention of the Ministry has been drawn to the fact that recently some fishers have demarcated part of the sea as their own and deployed fishing nets and fish aggregating devices in the demarcated area for their exclusive use.

“I wish to inform the public and all fishermen that such activities contravene the Fisheries Acts and Regulations and arrest will soon begin,” she added.

The Minister revealed that a Scientific and Technical Committee has been inaugurated to provide scientific advice on various fishing communities in the country to pave way for the rolling out of the co-management committees at all levels to ensure voluntary compliance of Fisheries laws.

She expressed gratitude to all industry players as well as its development partners for ensuring compliance of the closed season and particularly, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for its financial assistance towards the implementation of 2022 closed season

Ms Kimberly Rosen, the Country’s Mission Director of USAID applauded the fisher folks for collaborating and complying with the law that saw the success of the closed season.

She assured her outfit’s commitment to supporting the fisheries sector with the needed resources and assistance towards its improvement.

The Country’s Mission Director stated that there was the need for fishers and the Ministry to collectively help develop the fisheries sector.

Mr Fred Kwasi Antwi Boadu, the Executive Director of the Fisheries Commission, stressed the need to find innovative ways to deal with negative practices contributing to the decline of the fisheries sector.

He explained that as stakeholders, they needed to play their roles well to improve the sector to achieve their short- and long-term objective in the quest to promote the sector.

Mr Boadu noted that the huge demand for fish protein was due to increased health conditions, hence, appropriate measures to increase fish stock in the sea, to enhance productivity for improved standard of living of fisher-folks.