Mr Richster Nii Amarh Amarfio, Secretary of the Ghana Tuna Association, has called on government to consider the establishment of a training school to build the capacity of value-chain actors in the fishery sector.
He said such an institution would provide knowledge, skills, competencies and certification to locals to manage the sector.
\u201cIn the Tuna sector, hundred per cent of the Captains are Koreans, and it\u2019s because we don\u2019t have a single Ghanaian fishery Captain who can man any of our tuna fishing vessels and it\u2019s a fact. For one to take up this role, one needs competencies, skills, and certification to be able to man a tuna fishing vessel per international standards.
\u201cAnd we don\u2019t have any training school that is training anybody to be a skipper of any of the fishing vessels, even Engineers, so we don\u2019t even have a fishing officer who is a Ghanaian to say we don\u2019t want to rely on foreigners again,\u201d he stated.
Mr Amarfio made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency when the Centre for Maritime, Law and Security (CEMLAWS) Africa, with funding from the Bloomberg Philanthropies under its \u201cVibrant Oceans Initiative,\u201d launched a fisheries transparency project titled: \u201cEnhancing Transparency in the Fisheries Sectors of Benin, Cote d\u2019Ivoire, Ghana and Senegal,\u201d in Accra.
The comment followed long-standing grief by stakeholders over how foreigners had taken over management of fishing vessels in the country, with Ghanaians often working as their subordinates and sometimes, treated unprofessionally.
The Association\u2019s Secretary said fisheries could be a major economic backbone for the nation if well managed.
To properly manage the fisheries sector, Mr Amarfio suggested that the capacity of those at the operational level (fishermen), regulatory level, academia and research be well built.
\u201cWe have a trial and error approach to managing our fisheries sector. We do closed season to see if it works without reporting it. Then we say, let\u2019s add one more month to the closed season, or move it from November to January or February to harvest more.
\u201cThose are not fisheries management. Fisheries management are clear scientific process. When you make an input, you know what to expect as an output,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n