Data Quality Of Capture Fisheries Management In Developing Countries: A Case Study Of Ghana

Abstract

Quality fisheries data is critical to sustainable fisheries management. Yet, gathering quality national fisheries data for fisheries management remains a huge challenge in many developing countries such as Ghana. This study assessed the quality of marine fisheries data, the methods used in generating the data, and how it influences Ghana‘s fishery‘s sustainability. The FAO standard protocol for national fisheries data collection was used to evaluate the kind of fisheries data collected and the sampling methods. The results indicated that different data sets were collected in different districts and regions of the country showing several discrepancies in the data sets used for developing management plans and policies. 50 landing sites were sampled out of 292 landing sites in Ghana, instead of 166 landing sites. For canoes, 290 were sampled out of 11,583 canoes instead of 372 canoes. Additionally, the results of bioeconomics analysis revealed the underestimation of catch potentials which has implications on the policy and management system. The situation eliminates potentially valuable data samples that could be crucial for the management process, which has an impact on the precision of the estimated catch and effort. This would thus make it more difficult to develop relevant regulations for the fisheries industry because the knowledge gained from this data might result in incorrect conclusions, unwise policy, and irresponsible fisheries management. It is suggested that, for the governance and sustainability of the fish stock, fisheries managers, and policymakers, including all pertinent stakeholders diligently collaborate to strike a balance between sampling techniques, needs, and the understanding of the data required. This should also give a balance collection by field and office staff, as this is essential to producing reliable statistics all year long.