The Law of Marine Fishing: Challenges and Coping Strategies for Sustainable Marine Fishing in Ghana

Abstract

Waters off the coasts of West Africa are very rich with many different types of fish and marine life. Some species like sardines, tuna, mackerel, tilapia and shrimps are important to many local communities and economies in West Africa. However, the current overfishing of these fish affects the sustainability of fishery industry. Despite Ghana ratifying to a number of international marine laws to ensure a sustainable marine fishing, there seem to be some challenges that are associated with marine fishing in Ghana. This paper further examines the strategies that have been employed by the fishing community and the fisheries ministry in Ghana as a response to restrictive measures for the challenges identified and discussed in literature. This paper is fundamentally an extensive review of marine fisheries literature. In general terms, it was found that, Ghana has ratified to a number of international marine laws including the UNCLOS.