Abstract

  In recent times, artisanal pelagic fishery which constitute the mainstay of Ghanaian fisheries have shown a decline leading to low economic output in coastal fishing communities. Trend analyses were performed on artisanal fish catch, catch per unit effort (CPUE), number of canoes (or artisanal vessels) and upwelling index from 1990 to 2016. Pearson Correlation investigated the relationship between catch and fishing effort, number of canoes and upwelling index. Round sardinella and anchovy constituted major artisanal pelagic fish species contributing 24% and 25% to artisanal fish production respectively. Catches of round sardinella declined sharply after 2006 with an average catch over last three year constituting 17% of maximum historical recorded catch in 1992. T-test however revealed no significant differences in catches of round sardinella and anchovy. There was a decline in catch, CPUE, upwelling index and an increase in number of canoes. A relatively stronger and negative relationship between catch and number of canoes indicated the major cause of dwindling catch was the higher number of canoes. Catch however had a positive relationship with fishing effort (number of days) and upwelling index. The number of canoes increased by 44% and the average CPUE was 322 kg/day. It is recommended that number of canoes are reduced to promote sustainable exploitation of the resource. This can lead to high economic output in coastal fishing communities to improve livelihood.

Keywords: Fishery; Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE); Anchovy

References

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Citation

Citation: Emmanuel K Dovlo., et al. “Catch Trends of Artisanal Fisheries in Ghana, West Africa". Acta Scientific Agriculture 4.3 (2020): 01-04.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Emmanuel K Dovlo., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.