“Fishes in our waters swim to other oceans and therefore the need to conserve every resource in the sea for future generations,” he said.

He made this call on Thursday during a clean-up campaign organized by the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Accra in collaboration with Abibiman Foundation, Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Ministry of Health, and the Environmental Protection Agency at the Tema Fishing Harbour.

The clean-up exercise was aimed at sensitizing the fishing community and the general public on the impact of human activities in terms of plastic waste, refuse, etc. on our seas, livelihood and health.

Ms. Heather Troutman, a Research fellow, Urban Planning, United Nations Development and Programme, observed the need to stop the burning of plastics in the community.

“There are plenty of plastics and there are no places to take them to? Inability to control these plastics is a problem we must deal with,” she said.

She said that burning of disused rubber products is dangerous especially to women because it affected unborn babies.

She advised the fisher-folk to “keep the plastics and recycle them for the manufacturing of important products.

Mr. Dela Kemevor, a Deputy Director at the Ministry of Health, said that “pollution of our oceans destroyed the oxygen content of the Ocean, and led to the destruction of organisms in the sea which affected the reproduction of fishes.

He again observed that higher cases of cancer recorded in the world were as a result of what we ate and our environment adding that “this is why we have to protect the environment”.

Mr. Ndiaga Gueye, Regional Senior Fisheries and Aquaculture Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization Regional Office for Africa, was happy that Ghana had taken fishery issues more seriously.

According to him, there was the need to fight illegal fishing in order to sustain our livelihood “since fishing was a major source of livelihood for those along the west coast of Africa.”

Mr. Prolo Dalla Stella, Programme Specialist (Sustainable Development) for the UNDP, observed that the annual production of fish in Ghana had reduced hence the need to fight illegal or over-fishing, mercury pollution of the ocean and dumping of wastes.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, he said, “The main issue is about pollution. There are a lot of plastic and human waste that are channeled directly into the sea. When these fishermen draw back their nets, they get more plastic wastes than fishes, and this is a big problem,” he said.

He also observed how illegal mining affected the sea because the polluted rivers get into the sea and the fish get contaminated.