The engagements, which started in Accra, attracted leaders of the various fishing groups, representatives of civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations and the media to seek their views on how to ensure the sustainable exploitation of the country's fish stock.

The meeting was attended by leaders of the Ghana National Canoe Fishers Council (GNCFC), the Ghana Industrial Trawlers Association (GITA) and the National Fishers Association of Ghana (NAFAG).

The leaders indicated their readiness to support the ministry to ensure full compliance with the 2020 fishing closed season.

Speaking for NAFAG, its Coordinating Secretary, Mr Daniel Yaw Owusu, said its members would embrace the closed season, which he described as a recovery measure that would save the country's fishing sector.

The Board Secretary of GITA, Mr Oyeman Ofori-Ani, said members of the association had been observing the closed season for the past five years.

He appealed to the ministry to undertake pre- and post-fishing closed season assessment of Ghana's fish stock to help evaluate its impact.

The acting National President of the GNCFC, Nana Jojo Solomon, proposed that this year's fishing closed season be observed in July, as scientists had suggested.

Dwindling stock

The sector Minister, Mrs Elizabeth Afoley Quaye, said the retrogression in the fisheries sector could be prevented when all stakeholders worked together.

"The closed season is a major measure in ensuring that we save our marine sector from dwindling stocks. Last year, it was successful and I am hopeful the 2020 edition will be an improvement, with the support of all fishing groups," she said.

She urged the Fisheries Scientific Survey Department of the Fisheries Commission to share the assessment of last year's closed season with industry players to encourage them to embrace this year's ban.

"If we don’t have a scientific basis for getting all stakeholders on board, it’ll be difficult,” she said.

On the issue of illegal unreported and unregulated fishing practices, she said the ministry was committed to combating the phenomenon, which was contributing to the dwindling fish stock in Ghana's waters.

Mrs Quaye urged the leaders of the various fishing groups to engage their members on the 2020 fishing closed season to get their buy-in.

All fleet

The Executive Director of the Fisheries Commission, Mr Michael Arthur-Dadzie, explained that the closed season would be observed by all fleets, except the tuna fleet, which would observe a two-month closed season in line with international regulations.