The Director of the Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies at the University ofGhana, Professor Kwasi Appeaning Addo has encouraged Ghana to move away from the reactive, knee jerk approach towards a science-based approach in the management of the country’s ocean resources.

He said this will enable the country use proven scientific data and knowledge to develop workable, lasting solutions to Ghana’s ocean challenges.

Prof. Appeaning Addo, who is also an Advisor to Ghana’s Sustainable Ocean Plan was speaking during a plenary session of the maiden National Blue Economy Summit in Accra.

“Fortunately, we have research institutes that are doing very well under the challenges but, we need to resource these research institutions so that they can do more than they are already doing. Trust me we have scientists in this country who are doing so much and if we resource these scientists, we can be able to solve this problem. We will be able to realise the future is the ocean,” he said.

He said effective management is key to harnessing the full potential of Ghana’s Blue Economy which include vast opportunities in renewable energy, maritime transport, fish management and tourism among others.

“Fortunately, we have a high level of currents in our ocean. Can we begin to look at harvesting this current to generate power for us? You will realise that, there is a huge potential for us within the ocean and we only need to identify these things. Moving into the future, the ocean can also be a major source in terms of pharmaceuticals, can we begin to look at these things? There are issues that we see as challenges but, we can turn these challenges around into resources,” Prof. Appeaning Addo encouraged.