49 •
Letter of appointment of advisory groups nationalregional •
Local knowledge maps •
Report to the National dialogue
4.2 National Marine Protected Area MPA Working Group
Activity Lead: Lazar
Activity Team: HM, FoN
ICFG made some progress on developing a national MPA strategy but this will be a low priority for SFMP. Rather than treat MPAs as a standalone topic, we will promote protected areas
essential fish habitat as part of demersal fisheries plans see IR4. If these site-based efforts gain traction, it may then prove fruitful to reactivate the national steering committee to place
these in a national context.
There will no activities in Year 1.
4.3 Fishing Capacity Assessment
Activity Lead: Lazar
Activity Team: FC, MOFAD
To reverse overfishing and rebuild the depleted stocks, fishing effort may have to be reduced temporarily below what would normally be considered necessary to obtain maximum yields.
This could result in short-term loss in yields before the rebound kicks in. Business as usual with the absence of effort control measures means stocks will continue to decline with diminishing
economic returns leading to further deterioration of social conditions. The FC has begun to address this with the support of the World Bank by registering small artisanal canoes, with more
than 8,000 registered as of June 2014 while the semi-number of industrial and the industrial fishing vessels are theoretically capped. By 2015, canoe owners and operators will need to be
licensed and a canoe cap can begin. The boat registration program will assist the FC in measuring fishing capacity.
Fishing effort, however, is more than a just a boat count. The term “capacity management” is defined as the implementation of a series of policies and technical measures aimed at ensuring a
desired balance between fishing inputs and fish production. It is the product of fishing effort and its level of activity to harmonize the harvesting potential of the fleet with the desired level of
output from its fisheries.
In Year 1, the SFMP will conduct training on fishing capacity assessment for the STWG and fisheries managers. A great deal of preliminary work on estimating effort has been carried out in
Ghana on artisanal and industrial fisheries but no single accepted method for estimating fleet capacity has yet been identified. The goal of the training is to recommend an appropriate and an
accurate fishing capacity assessment and deduction models for the small pelagics fisheries.
The SFMP will conduct a study in Year 2 on fishing capacity will be targeted on small pelagic and inshore demersal fisheries canoes, semi-industrial and trawlers for each of the three sectors
by gear type, region and by standardized units. While these are not standardized, they can be calibrated using modern statistical methods to provide a standardized and unbiased measure of
fishing effort. Once quantitative assessments of fishing capacity are better understood and stock
50 assessments are available, the level of fishing effort that produces maximum yields, a goal of
Ghana’s national fisheries policy, can be ascertained. In Year 1 we will introduce this concept via a national training workshop. This will set a stage for conducting the capacity assessment
study in Year-2. This information, combined with the outputs of the fisheries dialogues and other management measures help map out a strategy to reduce fleet capacity to more sustainable
levels. The capacity assessment study will be tasked to the STWG in year-2.
Table of Key Activities and Milestones
Who 4.3 Fishing Capacity Assessment
Q1 Q2
Q3 Q4
CRC Training on fishing capacity assessment for the
STWG.
X
List of Key Outputs •
Training on fishing capacity assessment for the STWG report.[ACT002]
4.4 The Western Region Demersal Fisheries Management Initiative
