to protect our waters

H.E. Mr. Isaac Osei, Ghana?s High Commissioner to the UK has said that the government would continue to take necessary measures to protect valuable fishing stocks in Ghana.

He announced that in support of the measures, the government would soon introduce the Vessel Management System (VMS) which would enable the country to control activities in her waters.

The introduction of the VMS, according to Mr. Osei, would create a resource to counter the incidence of overfishing by foreign industrial fishing boats and facilitate appropriate monitoring of fishing activities in Ghana?s territorial waters.

He said the VMS would allow a fishing licensing regime to be put in place and added that the system could attract valuable foreign exchange for the country.

Mr. Isaac Osei made these remarks when Mr. John O?Connor, Chairman of Bluefinger Ltd of the United Kingdom called on him to congratulate the government on the imminent introduction of the VMS to Ghana.

Bluefinger is the world leading producer of vessel management system.

Mr. O?Connor said the imminent introduction of the scheme was a demonstration of Ghana?s good leadership in the sustainable development of fishing resources and hoped that other African countries would follow Ghana?s example since the problems caused by unregulated industrial fishing were a major threat to a global scale.

Mr. Osei pointed out the ?Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development? set down among key objectives the introduction of measures for the management of fishing capacity from 2005 and to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal and unregulated fishing by 2004.

He said ?Ghana takes these responsibilities seriously and will continue within these objectives towards the management of fishing capacity from 2005.