A four-day workshop organised by the Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem (GCLME) in collaboration with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) opened on Tuesday in Accra with a call on participating countries of the GCLME to act swiftly to prevent disastrous consequences on the marine industry.
The workshop, which brought together 40 participants in the marine sector across GCLME region, is aimed at building capacity of participants to control and manage invasive aquatic species and the transfer of environmentally harmful organisms and sediments in ships' ballast water.
The Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Ms Sherry Ayittey, who opened the workshop, observed that invasive aquatic species posed a great danger to marine biodiversity, ecosystem, health and coastal socio-economy of the GCLME region.
"It is an introductory course for personnel to have different skills, knowledge and experience in the management of ballast water. This should provide a common set of knowledge and skills to all participants to enable them to take appropriate action to promote uniform implementation of the ballast water management convention," she stated.
Ms Ayittey said even though countries within the catchments of the GCLME region provided multi-billion dollar shipping services for global market, the industry was increasingly impacting negatively on fisheries, coastal industry, infrastructure and also interfere with the regional population amenities.
The Minister observed that the cause of that negative trend was as a result of large amount of ships' ballast water, which often carried harmful invasive organisms into the ecosystem.
"The implications are unimaginable especially in the area of eradication of these harmful invasive organisms if they are allowed to establish in the ecosystem," she said.
The GCLME covers the marine environment of 16 countries sharing the coast of Guinea in Central and Western Africa.
The Officer in-charge of the GCLME, Dr. Jacques Abe, noted that the workshop was very crucial as it would afford participants the opportunity to build capacity in the GCLME region, to promote the introduction of alien species through ships ballast water.
Mr Fredrick Haag, Technical Adviser, IMO, said one of the reasons of concern was that the region was extremely rich in coastal and marine biodiversity.
He added that the coastal population in marine resources was key factor for their daily subsistence as well as for the overall economic development for the region.