The two industrial vessels arrested and detained in December last year by the Ghana Navy for engaging in illegal fishing activities in the country's territorial waters have been fined $50,000 each. But some fishermen have expressed indignation about the fine, saying it was not deterrent enough, adding that some of the vessels were owned by wealthy individuals and organisations to whom $50,000 was too small. The Chief Fisherman of Tema, Nii Odametey, in an inter¬view, said a fine in hundreds of thousands of dollars would have been enough deterrent for the vessels which engaged in those nefarious activities. He said the vessels made huge profits from engaging in the illegal activities and added that only huge fines would deter them. The vessels were intercepted in the country's Inshore Exclusive Zone (IEZ) after causing extensive damage to the canoes and nets of local fishermen. The Deputy Minister of Agriculture in charge of Fisheries Nii Amasa Namoil1e, told the Daily Graphic that the vessel - M/V AWOYAA 8, with registration number AF 648, and M/V ZHONG LU YU 1004, with registration number AF 675, were fined by an arbitration committee established by the Fisheries Commission. He said two other vessels, Twin Port City and Twin City, who were also arrested for pair trawling, were both fined $50,000 because they were owned by the same organisation. Nii Namoale said currently some ships were being constructed abroad for the Ghana Navy to enable it to patrol the country's territorial waters. He said the ships the country had, were not durable for the task and, therefore, they could not patrol the waters as frequently as they should. He noted that no licences for pair trawling had been issued by the government since it came to power, adding that all the licences issued by the previous government had expired. "No vessel, therefore, has the right to engage in pair trawling in the country's waters," he added. Meanwhile, the problem of pair trawling, which led to fishermen experiencing low catch, appears to have subsided considerably, according to fishermen in Tema. Nii Odamettey said although some fishermen had reported seeing few Chinese vessels, engaging in that activity, the problem was not as prevalent as it was about a year and a half ago. He said the arrest of the two vessels recently might have sent a signal to those engaging in the exercise that they would be dealt with by the law enforcement agencies if they were caught. With regard to premix fuel, Nii Odamettey said the fisher¬men in the area experienced scarcity and urged the government to increase supply. He explained that sometimes canoes from Ada, Cape Coast and other areas travelled to the Tema coast to fish when the sea in their areas became rough, adding that those canoes procured their premix from Tema. Source: Daily Graphic