Cape Coast, Aug. 9, GNA - Alhaji Mustapha Mohammed, Central Regional Pre-mix Fuel Coordinator on Monday, appealed to the government to increase the loads of premix supplied to fishermen in the region to meet the demands of the bumper fishing season.

Alhaji Mohammed, who made the appeal on behalf of the fishermen in an interview with the GNA at Cape Coast, said the region received a total of 47 loads per week for distribution to its 23 landing beaches. He said a bumper season was expected this year and that to ensure that the fishermen had sufficient fuel, it was necessary to increase the supply to about 50 loads a week.

He said already, fishermen at Biriwa, Ekumfi-Narkwa, Apam, Elmina and Cape Coast had started landing large catches of herrings, which become abundant during the period of the year and expressed the hope that other landing beaches would record similar catches by the end of the month.

Alhaji Mohammed, however, urged fishermen not to become impatient in their bid to increase their catch by buying adulterated pre-mix fuel from unapproved sources that would destroy their outboard motors. He expressed concern that some fishermen failed to pay for the fuel supplied them on time and said at the moment, a total amount of 100 million cedis was still in arrears.

Touching on projects being initiated from the profit made through the sale of the premix, he said a number of toilets, clinics and security lights had been provided for various fishing communities. He advised such communities to always use such monies on viable projects to improve their living standards.