Accra, Feb. 2, GNA - The Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission in collaboration with the Ministry of Fisheries would today, launch a National Fish Folk Forum to mark the World Wetland Day.

The forum that would be held at Akosua Village, a small fishing community at Winneba, would serve as a platform to educate the people on the importance of wetlands and the need to encourage all manner of good practices that promoted capacity of wetlands to support and sustain fisheries.

February 2 each year is celebrated as World Wetland Day by member states of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, to which Ghana is a signatory.

The day would be celebrated under the theme: "Wetlands support fisheries -keep them healthy", and comes with the slogan: "Fish for tomorrow".

A statement signed by Mrs Vivian A. N. Nuhu, Acting Executive Director and Public Relations Manager of the Wildlife Division, said the theme was chosen based on the fact that over one billion people relied solely or partly on fish for their source of protein, yet the current state of the world's fisheries was a matter of great concern. It said 75 per cent of the commercially important marine fisheries and many inland stocks were currently being over fished and the demand for fish continued to grow as global population increased. In addition, of the 35 million people currently involved in the fishing industry, 95 per cent are said to be living in developing countries where the majority are small-scale fishers whose livelihoods depend on "our collective efforts at making sure that there will be enough fish for tomorrow" it said.

"In Ghana little do people know that marine and inland fisheries depend on healthy, functional wetlands like the Volta River Estuary; Sakumo; Kpeshie; Korle; Muni; and Chemu Lagoons and the numerous patches of mangrove swamps along the coast of the country are the nursery grounds of deeper ocean fish species that make up the marine fish catches."

The statement said the quality and quantity of the fish in the country were low and would continue to be low as the population increased and appealed to the general public to desist from all negative behaviours and actions such as using wetlands as dumping sites where construction debris and plastics were dumped.

It said such activities deprived the wetlands the opportunities of maintaining health that would ensure growth of fingerlings for tomorrow's fish and advised fishermen and both canoe and commercial trawler operators to desist from the use of wrong fishing gears and methods that threatened the very basis of the survival of fishes. Consumers were also to resist from buying undersized fish to prompt the fisher folk of complying with the laid down regulations meant to ensure that there was fish for tomorrow and at all times the statement said.