Eight whales die at Ankobra beach after start of oil exploration at Ghana Jubilee fields

Mr. Kwodwo Kyei Yamoah, Programme Coordinator of Friends of the Nation, an environmental non-governmental organization, has said eight whales have died within four years since the Jubilee Partners started oil exploration at the Jubilee Oilfields in the Western Region.

He said the persistent death of whales at West Cape Three Points had created fear and panic among the residents of Half Assini, Ankobra, Bonwire, and other coastal communities.

The residents of Ankobra in the Nzema East Municipality who revered the whales as gods performed rituals and buried them at a designated cemetery.

He said a whale died on October 26 and alleged that the deaths of whales could be attributed to pollution of the sea by some oil companies.

Mr. Yamoah alleged that some ships that berth near the oil rigs had been discharging ballaswater (wastewater from oil) into the sea that had subsequently affected the quality of the seawaters hence the rampant death of marine life.

He criticized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for not often carrying out environment assessment at the West Cape Three Points area, hence the indiscriminate dumping of poisonous chemicals into the sea.

When the Western Regional Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Mr. Yaw Sarfo Afriyie, said though the Agency discovered one dead whale at Ankobra, the death cannot be attributed to the operations of the oil and gas explorations.

He said it would be unfair to accuse the oil companies for the death of the whale since no research had been conducted to implicate them.

Mr. Afriyie said whales have life spans as human beings and therefore the death of a whale should not be used as grounds to accuse oil companies operating in the area.

He said his outfit would take steps to investigate the death of the whale in due course.

Source: GNA