Ghana Advocates for ‘No Safe Harbour for Illegal Fishers’
Ghana’s Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Hon. Emelia Arthur, has called on the international community to close governance gaps and ensure there is no safe harbour for vessels engaged in Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.
She made the call on September 7, 2026, in the FAO Plenary Hall in Rome, Italy, during a high-level event marking the 10th anniversary of the Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA) ahead of the 37th Session of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI).
Addressing world leaders, ministers and FAO Director-General Dr QU Dongyu, Hon. Arthur framed the fight against IUU fishing as a matter of economic justice, national sovereignty and community stewardship, grounding her address in the human cost of ocean exploitation on coastal communities.
She noted that along the coastal beaches of Ghana, fishing has for generations been more than an industry, serving as the bedrock of community identity, food security and family survival, yet the activities of unlicensed fleets siphoning marine life from West African waters have stripped income from local fishers and threatened the future of coastal youth.
“Ten years ago, the international community made a simple but powerful declaration: Illegal fishing must have no safe harbour,” she declared. “The PSMA gave that principle practical force by recognising that the fight against IUU fishing cannot be won at sea alone. Ports must become places of accountability, cooperation, and consequence.”
Reflecting on a decade of implementation, the Minister said traditional sea-level enforcement, while critical, is no longer enough and urged that the focus of the next decade must shift toward closing systemic loopholes across the entire fisheries value chain, tracing seafood from ocean catch to port entry and to international consumer markets.
She disclosed that Ghana is backing the vision with decisive domestic reform through its newly implemented Fisheries and Aquaculture Act of 2025, which modernises the legal framework, strengthens port surveillance and aligns domestic enforcement directly with PSMA obligations.
The Minister stressed that Ghana’s approach recognises coastal communities not as passive victims of illegal fishing, but as vital stewards of marine ecosystems.
She further called for genuine international solidarity among flag, coastal, port and market States, supported by real-time technology sharing, robust operational capacity and cross-border cooperation.
“Let the legacy of the PSMA be this: that no illegal fisher finds a safe harbour, no illegally caught fish finds a legitimate market, and no future generation inherits an ocean diminished by our failure to act today,” she said.
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