Ghana Oil Exploration Affecting Fishing in Western Province

This is because Tullow-Ghana Oil and its partners have earmarked a radius of 500 km from the oil rigs as a restricted enclave for fishing activities, repots Xinhuanet.

According to the Ghana Statistical Service, Ghanas 550 km coastal stretch has a population of 2.4 million people or 10 per cent of the countrys population who are dependent mainly on fisheries resources for their livelihood.

Therefore, barring them from fishing in certain portions of the ocean would hamper their ability to cater for their families.

Fisheries resources contribute 4.5 per cent towards the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the West African countrys economy, while many Ghanaians depend on fish for their protein and other nutritional needs.

Therefore, restricting fishing activities because of the oil exploration could result in conflicts between the fisher-folk and operators of the Jubilee Fields in the near future.

A deputy director of Ghanas Fisheries Commission, Emmanuel Marfo, told Xinhua in an interview on Friday in Takoradi that since the commencement of oil exploration, the number of supply vessels on Ghanas territorial waters had increased.

This situation, the official said, had resulted in some occasions when foreign vessels destroyed the nets of some Ghanaian boats and canoes without paying any compensation to them.

Marfo observed that such negative aspects of oil exploration on fishing in Ghana could result in an oil curse and, therefore, entreated fishing regulatory bodies such as the Ghana Marine Authority and Environmental Protection Agency to check the activities of these foreign vessels.

Whats more, when oil and gas were discovered in commercial quantities in Ghanas deep-sea and subsequent exploration at the last quarter of 2010, ocean mammals such as whales died mysteriously close to the Jubilee Oilfields, resulting in some environmentalists in the West African country raising concerns about the safety of marine life.

The situation prompted some environmental nongovernmental organizations and civil society groups in Ghana to call for a fisheries impact assessment on the oil fields by the oil companies.

This, according to them, would help ascertain the impact of oil exploration activities on marine life and take remedial measures to rectify the problem.

Some fishermen in the six coastal districts of the Western Region (Province) namely, Shama, Sekondi, Takoradi, Ahanta West, Ellembelle and Jomoro told Xinhua that ever since oil exploration started about two years ago, they had experienced poor catches even during bumper fishing season in August.

They said the activities of oil companies on the oilfields were scaring fish stocks away from Ghanas territorial waters to neighboring countries.

The fisher folk lamented that this situation had affected them economically since they could not get money to pay their childrens school fees and meet other social responsibilities.