A shocking lack of transparency in the Ghanaian fishing industry has fostered corruption and illegal fishing - leading fish stocks to plunge to their lowest recorded levels -- the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) and its partners said in a new report released Friday.

The report published by the EJF and Hen Mpoano, under the EU-funded Far Dwuma Nkɔdo project, shows illegal operators disguise the identity, ownership and history of fishing vessels, avoiding detection and sanctions.

As a result, illegal fishing is rife and vast overcapacity in the fishing fleet continues to decimate fish stocks.

Despite Ghana’s laws clearly forbidding any foreign ownership or control of industrial trawl vessels flying its flag, Chinese companies operate extensively through Ghanaian "front" companies, a previous EJF report revealed. Using opaque corporate structures, they import their vessels, register and obtain a licence to fish.

Negotiated fines

These activities, aimed at circumventing laws and facilitating illegal operations, are enabled by a complete lack of transparency, including disguising who is responsible for illegal actions and who controls and benefits from Ghana’s industrial trawl fleet, the report said.

In 2015, 90 percent of industrial trawl vessels licensed in Ghana were built in China, and 95 percent were captained by Chinese nationals.

According to the report, fines for illegal fishing are often negotiated – through opaque out-of-court settlements – to a fraction of the $1 million (€879,854) minimum set out in the law. Fishing licence fees in Ghana are substantially lower than in other West African countries.

Solutions

Improving transparency would play a crucial part in eradicating the illegal fishing that is driving the country’s fish stocks to extinction and impoverishing local communities, says the report. Many of the measures – such as publishing details of fishing licences and their conditions – are cheap, simple, and can be implemented immediately.

To bring about meaningful change, the report recommends that the Ghanaian government should:

• Allow for external scrutiny of progress towards achieving targets for sustainable fisheries management.

• Invest the revenue from licence fees and fines in the sustainable development of the sector and publish the details.

• Identify the true beneficiaries and perpetrators of large-scale and organized illegal fishing and hold them publicly accountable for their actions.

• Make vessel monitoring data publicly available, to improve oversight of Ghanaian fishing activities, both in national waters and in neighbouring countries.

The on-going revision of the 2002 Fisheries Act provides a unique opportunity to put Ghana’s fisheries on the road to sustainability by enshrining these crucial measures into national law, the report said.