The coast of Ghana is home to over 200 fishing communities, who have relied on the oceans for generations to support their livelihoods and food security. Today, it is believed that as many as 2.6 million people along the value chain rely on fisheries in the country. However, declining fish populations and the associated scarcity of locally important fish species such as sardinella have condemned many fishers to a cycle of poverty and insecurity.
IUU fishing has been a significant driver of fish population decline, and has blighted Ghanaian waters for decades. Through engaging with crew on industrial vessels and affected fishing communities, EJF found that one of the most directly harmful forms of IUU fishing in the country was the illegal encroachment of trawlers into Ghana’s six nautical mile IEZ, which often led to canoe fishers’ nets being ensnared in industrial gear, creating huge financial burdens through lost catch and repair.
A 2022 study by EJF found that, of the 36 industrial crew interviewed, 81% had witnessed their vessel illegally enter the IEZ, often occurring at night with the vessels’ lights turned off. Another recent EJF study found that almost 75% of respondent small-scale fishers said that they encountered industrial vessels more frequently than five years ago, with 70% saying they had suffered damaged nets as a result. Fishers were able to obtain compensation in less than 15% of instances where nets were damaged, further exacerbating their financial woes.
To enable better detection and deterrence of these incursions, EJF began the process of designing and rolling out the DASE app. Over the course of 2019, EJF engaged over 700 fishers across 48 communities in Ghana’s Central Region, in collaboration with the government’s Fisheries Commission. Fishers and government officials were trained on how to use the app and their suggestions and feedback helped to optimise it.
Fishers received extensive training from EJF and in-country partners as well as the Fisheries Commission. This included information on the boundaries of the IEZ, and the Commission’s processes through which fishers can claim compensation. The app had an early success when in late 2019, an industrial trawler was caught allegedly fishing within the IEZ, with evidence submitted to Ghana’s Fisheries Commission.
Now, years into the project, the app continues to evolve and adapt to better suit the needs of fishers and to reflect the practical and behavioural realities of community surveillance in the country. This has included distributing plastic wallets to preserve phones, the use of digital cameras alongside the app and extensive internal reflections within the organisation on how to motivate fishers to safely and effectively participate. EJF’s community officers continually engage with fishers, providing ongoing troubleshooting and support, and talking to fishers to understand if, how and when they are using the app and any challenges they face.
While the app had been deployed widely across the coast, it became clear that only a relatively small subset of fishers were actively using the app during their fishing expeditions. To address this issue, EJF initiated a ‘DASE champions’ model, working with a small number of trusted and more active fishers to undertake community surveillance with a view to gathering actionable evidence for enforcement purposes. The aim is to gather success stories on the use of the app and encourage a wider pool of fishers to engage in the project at a later stage. The app has also been deployed through existing institutional structures, leveraging the trust and knowledge base of community-based enforcement committees at each landing beach.
The DASE app has recently been adapted in Ghana to monitor sea turtle conservation and shark fisheries and has further potential to gather information on other pressures faced by coastal communities, including mangrove loss and environmental harm caused by extractive industries.
