Fishermen Called on the Involvement of Women to Ensure Safety at Sea

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The call was made by the Greater Accra regional branch of the Canoe and Gear Owners Association of Ghana during the Safety at Sea campaign organised by the Marine and Coastal Areas Management in North and West Africa’s consortium (MarCNoWA).
 
Group picture with the leadership of the regional branch of  Canoe and Fishing Gear Owners Association of Ghana, Greater Accra 

The ocean state forecast service provided to beneficiary countries is one of the flagship services of the MarCNoWA consortium under the GMES and Africa Project Phase II. The service provides information and ocean state maps to protect lives and property at sea from bad weather. In Ghana, information on the ocean state has been accessed more than 100 000 times via the short code *920*88# since its inception in phase I of the project. The shortcode was developed by the University of Ghana which is the lead of the consortium.

At the palace of the Chief fisherman of the Moree fishing town in the Central region of Ghana

To ensure that the developed tools to access ocean state early warning alerts in coastal fishing communities and therefore increase their usage under the Phase II of the project, artisanal canoe and gears owners, and chief fishermen were engaged within the months of September and October 2022 along the coastal belt of Ghana. Staff of the three partner institutions of the Marine and Coastal Areas Management Project in Ghana (Regional Marine Centre, Ghana Meteorological Agency, Nature Today) together with the support of the staff of the Fisheries Commission and representatives of Canoe and Fishing Gear Owners Association of Ghana (CaFGOAG) have embarked on an intensive end-user engagement to increase awareness and seek for feedback that would enable plans of updating the service.

Nana Kweigyah, President of CaFGOAG educating his peers at Abandze, Central Region of Ghana

This field visit, which will be the first of this kind under the MarCNoWA would be replicated in all beneficiary countries that need the ocean state forecast. More than 200 community leaders, canoe owners, and chief fishermen were introduced to the service, trained and empowered to be ambassadors in their coastal communities or regions. They benefited from visibility materials such as posters, stickers, t-shirts and flags that would help communicate the information to the larger communities. More than 20 coastal communities were engaged in the four coastal regions of Ghana. Key communities among others are Adina, Anloga, Keta, Ada, Nungua, Anomabo, Moree, Elmina, Abandze, Sekondi, Shama, and Half Assini.

Representatives of UG, GMet, Nature Today and CaFGOAG addressing fishermen's leadership at Sekondi, in the Western Region of Ghana
 
The 3-day forecast of the ocean condition the information could be assessed not only with the use of the USSD code which works on all networks and is free to access regardless of the phone used but also via the GMES-UG Mobile Application. The mobile application provides all beneficiary countries’ ocean states forecast, ocean state maps and potential fishing zones. In Phase 2 of the Project, the service has been extended to cover northern African countries such as Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Egypt. In total, ocean state information is provided for 20 coastal countries in North and West Africa in English, French and Portuguese languages.

GMES-UG App shown to the end users

Artisanal fishers are interested in the marine rain forecast, their positioning at sea, the broadcasting of the forecast in local languages and through the community radios, and the involvement of the women in supporting their partners in monitoring the ocean state and taking appropriate decisions. "You have to come and talk to our women as well. You know how they can put pressure for the right thing to be done" these were the words of the Regional Chairman of the Greater Accra branch of CaFGOAG,
The visiting team further identified regional and national ambassadors of the ocean state services and obtained useful feedback from the users of the services to enhance the service uptake and dissemination.

Greater Accra branch of CaFGOAG, calling on GMES and Africa to engage women at the end-user level

The University of Ghana consortium is working with all national focal institutions to provide similar services to the 18 beneficiary coastal countries in North and West Africa. “GMES, and Africa” is a continental Earth Observation program co-founded by the African Union Commission and the European Commission.





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