Government to insure fishermen against disasters – Minister

Mr Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development on Monday said government has decided to insure all fishermen in the country against disasters.

He announced this at a meeting with fishermen and landing beach committees from Gomoa West at Dago in the Central Region.

He said the government was aware of the high cost of fishing gear in the country and the frequent disasters that had befallen them.

The Deputy Minister, who is also the Member of Parliament for Mfantseman, said the insurance for the fishermen would be known as “Fishermen Life Insurance Scheme (FLIS),and that, government had decided to register fishing boats and canoes operating in the country to make distribution of fuel to the landing beaches easy.

He said the government was making the necessary efforts to regulate the cost of fishing gears in the country to make them affordable.

Mr Quansah expressed concern about how fishermen abuse the fishing laws of the country through the use of banned methods of fishing, including pair trawling and the use of light and chemicals.

“Fishermen must not blame anybody but themselves for the poor catch they have been getting these days,” and cautioned that government does not take lightly the use of unapproved methods of fishing.

The Deputy Minister said henceforth protocol allocation of fuel to members of landing beach committees should cease since it was a source of illegal sales of the fuel.

Mr Quansah reminded the fishermen on the ban on fishing for some periods to allow the fish to breed and grow and asked the landing beach committees to inform the District Chief Executives about what they intend doing with the profits from the sale of the premix fuel before embarking on any project.

The DCE for Gomoa West, Mr Theophilus Aidoo-Mensah appealed to fishermen to report their colleagues, who use banned methods in fishing to the authorities, saying that, “There is the need for all us to contribute to make the fishing business lucrative.”

Source: GNA