Richter Amarh Amarfio, the vice president of the National Fisheries Association of Ghana (NAFAG), has cautioned that the industrial fisheries industry in Ghana is on the verge of collapse due to the way the extension of the Inshore Exclusive Zone (IEZ) is being interpreted and implemented.
According to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the Fisheries and Aquaculture Act, 2025 (Act 1126), as currently interpreted, has essentially brought industrial fishing, particularly trawl boats, to a standstill. Many of these vessels are now laid up at the ports and unable to fish.
Under the new interpretation, he continued, Ghanaian-flagged industrial ships are prohibited outside the 12-nautical-mile zone, making it almost impossible for them to function in Ghanaian territorial seas.
“Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Ghana’s territorial waters are defined operationally as only reaching 12 nautical miles. “The area beyond that, up to 200 nautical miles, is the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), not territorial waters,” he said.
Legislation that prohibits Ghanaian-flagged boats from operating lawfully in Ghanaian waters beyond the 12 nautical mile limit, according to Mr Amarfio, has effectively crippled the industrial fisheries industry.
He observed that the industrial fisheries industry in Ghana is made up of two primary components: the tuna industry and industrial trawl fisheries.
The nation is now one of the top tuna fishing contracting parties in the Atlantic Ocean with 17 purse seiners and 20 pole-and-line tuna boats, according to him.
Furthermore, there are about 45 operational Ghanaian-flagged industrial trawl ships in Ghana that are owned by Ghanaian enterprises and collectively make a major contribution to the economy while also creating jobs.
The controversy arose following the introduction of Act 1126, according to Mr. Amarfio, where Section 40 was understood to have established a 12-nautical-mile Inshore Exclusive Zone without adhering to the legal procedures.
The minister is required by the Act, after due procedure, which includes a scientific evaluation and input from the Fisheries Commission and other interested parties, to gazette the IEZ. But he claimed that the law went even further by unilaterally establishing the 12-nautical-mile zone without meeting those requirements.
Citing comparable IEZs in other West African nations and the lack of scientific rationale for the extension, he said that the new IEZ, which was then six nautical miles, caused concerns in the industrial sector.
Many requests were sent to the Parliament and the President, cautioning about the possible economic and operational repercussions of the new IEZ, particularly given that it was not backed by scientific evidence, according to Mr. Amarfio.
He said that due to the current state of affairs, all industrial trawl boats are now laid up at the Tema port and unable to fish in the specified areas, while 19 of the 20 pole-and-line tuna boats have completely broken down and stopped operating.
