By Kizito CUDJOE
Just as the country strengthens its fight against destructive fishing, a new danger is spreading along the coastline, rivers thick with silt, mercury and chemical waste from illegal mining pouring into the ocean at Shama, Ankobra and other estuaries in the Western Region.
By failing to consider the impact of mining-polluted rivers in the country’s fisheries governance, Ghana risks addressing one crisis while another worsens quietly upstream. If mercury-laden sediments and chemical runoff continue to wash into the sea, the country may soon confront a marine emergency that the Fisheries and Aquaculture Act, 2025 (Act 1146) is not built to confront.
The new act, which replaces Act 625, has otherwise been praised as a major step forward for the fisheries sector. Assented to by President John Dramani Mahama and passed by Parliament in July, the law is widely viewed as strengthening oversight, improving transparency and giving regulators stronger tools to curb illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, a long-standing contributor to stock decline and the European Union’s (EU) yellow-card warning.
The act establishes an independent fisheries commission and aligns the country’s regulatory framework with international standards. Its passage comes at a crucial time when more than 90 percent of artisanal fishers report declining catches, while small pelagic species such as sardinella have nearly collapsed within a decade.
The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), in welcoming the reforms, said the expanded powers to deter IUU fishing give authorities clearer authority to act decisively against industrial and semi-industrial vessels that flout the law. The organisation added that the act signals a renewed commitment to rebuilding fish stocks and protecting the livelihoods of more than 400,000 small-scale fishers who depend on healthy marine ecosystems.
“This new law marks a turning point for Ghana’s fisheries and coastal communities,” said the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EJF, Steve Trent.
“The president’s assent sends a clear signal of leadership, vision and commitment to the millions of people who rely on a healthy ocean.”
The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development has also described the reforms as essential to safeguarding more than US$425million in annual seafood exports, maintaining Ghana’s access to global markets and tightening regulation across the sector.
A statement from the ministry said the act “secures Ghana’s fisheries resources, supports livelihoods, strengthens compliance with international trade standards and positions the sector for long-term growth and sustainability.”
Among its key provisions, the act doubles the inshore exclusive zone from six to 12 nautical miles to protect breeding areas, introduces tougher penalties for illegal operators and strengthens worker protections aboard fishing vessels.
Officials of the ministry argue that these measures are critical to restoring depleted stocks and shoring up confidence among international buyers.
Yet beneath the optimism, as someone from Shama, a coastal town, and a grandchild of a fisherman who also grew up in a mining community in Tarkwa, I can say with confidence that the law leaves a critical threat untouched, the pollution of rivers by illegal mining (galamsey) that ultimately flows into the sea.
Rivers such as the Ankobra, Pra, Offin, Birim and Tano now carry heavy loads of silt, mercury, cyanide and other contaminants into nursery grounds along the coast. These polluted waters degrade coastal ecosystems, deplete plankton and damage spawning habitats for small pelagics, potentially undermining the very recovery the act aims to achieve.
A simple look at the Pra estuary, from my late father’s ancestral compound house at Apo in Shama, is enough to reveal the scale of the danger, a warning that has so far gone unaddressed in the new law.
In an effort to better protect coastal and marine ecosystems, the country has designated its first marine protected area (MPA) within the Greater Cape Three Points, a development described as central to the country’s blue economy framework.
Announcing the cabinet decision in Accra, the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Emelia Arthur, called the MPA a timely and strategic intervention to restore marine health, rebuild fish stocks and boost the sector’s overall productivity.
She explained that the roughly 700-square-kilometre area, stretching from Ampatano to Domunli, had been identified through scientific assessments as the most suitable site for the designation.
While the move is commendable, the delay in extending similar attention to areas such as Shama and Ankobra, two locations where the impact of polluted rivers is visibly severe, remains difficult to understand.
Some experts warn that without a coordinated national strategy that connects fisheries management to land-based environmental regulation, the sector’s recovery will remain fragile. “You cannot rebuild marine stocks if mercury and cyanide are being flushed into the ocean every day,” one coastal ecologist said. “The problem is upstream, not offshore.”
Beyond environmental concerns, issues have also been raised about the drafting of the law. Dr Godwin Djokoto, Coordinator of the Ocean Governance Project, praised the government’s efforts but argued that the act was passed too quickly and contains technical flaws that could complicate enforcement.
He pointed to a clause requiring the Fisheries Commission to collaborate with specific voluntary organisations, a potential administrative challenge if any of those groups become inactive.
“Using broader language like ‘stakeholders’ would prevent such complications,” Dr Djokoto said during a stakeholder consultation on the new act and the WTO agreement on harmful fisheries subsidies.
He stressed the importance of using the one year for drafting regulations to resolve these issues.
For all its strengths, the Fisheries and Aquaculture Act remains exposed to a growing crisis beyond its immediate scope. Without an integrated response to illegal mining and river pollution, the country risks rebuilding parts of its marine environment while losing others, setting the stage for yet another policy gap that future legislation will be forced to address.
On this 41st National Farmers’ Day, the call to action is clear: stakeholders and citizens alike must urgently turn their attention to this mounting threat and confront it before it consumes us altogether.
Meanwhile, kudos to the Fisheries Transparency Platform (FishTraP), a multi-stakeholder initiative established to strengthen governance and accountability in Ghana’s fisheries sector.
The post Farmers’Day25: New fisheries law confronts enduring galamsey threat appeared first on The Business & Financial Times.
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