China's Distant Fishing Fleet Decimating Ghana's Fish Stocks

The China-Africa Project just broadcast a 44 minute program titled "China's Distant Fishing Fleet Is Decimating What's Left of Ghana's Fish Stocks" that interviewed Kofi Agbogah, executive director of the coastal advocacy group known as Hen Mpoano.

Agbogah explained that China's long distance fishing fleet trawls all levels of the water off Ghana using banned drift nets that catch everything in the water, including species that the Chinese do not want. They then sell these species to Ghanaians. Ghanaian law prohibits foreigners from operating in this fashion in their waters. The Chinese get around this by hiring Ghanaian crews but Chinese make all the decisions on the disposition of the fish that are caught. This practice has nearly wiped out the local Ghanaian fishing industry and threatens to completely deplete Ghana's offshore fish stocks by 2020.

Hen Mpoana also published in 2019 a detailed report on the problem titled "Stolen At Sea: How Illegal 'Saiko' Fishing Is Fuelling the Collapse of Ghana's Fisheries." It points out that over 90 percent of the trawlers operating in Ghanaian waters are linked to Chinese beneficial owners.