A Senior Researcher with the Institute of Marine Research in Norway, Jens Otto Krakstad, and Cruise Leader for the Research Vessel, Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, has revealed that plastic is seen almost everywhere in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire's marine waters.

Mr Krakstad, speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the celebration of World Ocean Day at the Tema Port, said they were catching plastics on every tour they made during their research work in the area.

“There is a clear need to do something with the pollution of plastics; we see that plastic is almost everywhere in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire; we are catching it in almost every tour, and it is certainly a big problem for the whole region, not just for Ghana,” he stated.

He said when he first came for research work in the region in 2004, they saw there was a lot of plastic debris in the catches, adding that over time this problem has increased.

He indicated that sources of the plastic are both from the land and from the ocean, explaining that vessels operating at sea whose crews have a bad habit of dumbing their refuse in the sea also contributed to the plastic pollution.

“There is a clear need to do something about the pollution of plastics,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has revealed that to address plastic pollution in the marine space, the UN Environment Programme-led Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee is developing a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.

The FAO stated in the 2024 State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture document, available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), that the organisation was actively participating in the consultations, providing technical advice on fisheries and aquaculture.

According to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), marine litter presents a huge problem in the oceans, with some scientists warning that, by 2050, the quantity of plastics in the oceans will outweigh fish.