By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Aug. 14, GNA – Some stakeholders in the fishing sector have questioned the scientific backing for the government’s decision to extend Ghana’s Inshore Exclusive Zone (IEZ).
The extension of the IEZ from six nautical miles to 12 nautical miles, forms part of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Bill 2025 passed by Parliament in July this year.
The bill was put before Parliament by Madam Emelia Arthur, the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture (MoFA), on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025, seeking, among others, to review and consolidate laws for sustainable fisheries resource exploitation.
Reacting to the extension during a media forum powered by the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Mr Richster Nii Amarh Amarfio, the Vice President of the National Fisheries Association of Ghana (NAFAG), and Mr Gilbert Paa Kwesi Sam, the Deputy Executive Director, Blue Economy and Governance Consult, expressed misgivings at the extension, stressing that it was not scientifically based.
Mr Amarfio said “To come up with an IEZ, you must have adequate scientific backing; fishing is science. You need to first establish which resources are available in the area you are asking people to go and fish.”
Mr Sam however stressed that the IEZ extension was based on politics, promises and emotions, arguing that it was not based on any scientific research to give the rationale behind it.
Explaining the various zones, Mr Amarfio stated that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) had designated a maritime domain for every country, including flag states, port states, and coastal states, with the only exclusion in the domain being the archipelagic zones such as Cape Verde.
He said that Ghana had a maritime domain up to 200 nautical miles (nm), known as the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), adding that its continental shelf (the bottom part) could be further extended to 150 nautical miles (350 nm maximum).
Mr Amarfio further explained that of the 200 nautical miles, there were further divisions, including the inland waters, which was 12 nautical miles from the baseline, developed in accordance with the UNCLOS.
“You have 12 nm as your territorial sea, which is as good as your land territories; it is no different in law from the land territories, so whatever right you have on the land territories, it’s the same. Vessels can’t just pass there without permission,” he added.
Mr Amarfio noted that an extension would deal with the resources at the bottom part (continental shelf), adding that there were scientific bases for countries doing 12 nm, therefore applying an extension must not be discriminatory to users of the territorial waters, stressing that Ghana served as a coastal state, a flag state, and a port state.
He explained that fishing was a commercial activity which came with cost; therefore, the extension must ensure that all sectors within the territory got what they deserved.
“If the state says go and fish outside of the 12 nm which is not an area that we fish, the state should be able to clearly tell us that outside of the 12 nm, if you are doing bottom trawling, you will be able to do so without any operational issues,” he said.
He further explained that fishing vessel sizes differed, and there were some that were so light that they may not have the capacity to trawl in the 12 nm bottom, “so if you have not done that experiment and you change this, you will automatically collapse that sector, risk lives, and expose them to activities of pandits.”
Mr Amarfio stressed that issues of security and patrolling must also be considered, as “Our last armed bandit activity in Ghana happened near Apam, not in the high sea within our territories, yet we were unable to police it, and they took hostages to Nigeria, which took us forever to negotiate to bring them back.”
He said it was very important that all aspects of such an extension be carefully thought of, and the economic impact and its feasibility well assessed.
GNA
Edited by Christabel Addo