Illegal fishing by foreign trawlers costs Ghana $50m a year, researchers say

Destructive industrial fishing practices condemned as 'corporate, organised crime'

Illegal fishing by foreign trawlers is decimating Ghana's fish populations and costing the country's economy tens of millions of dollars a year, according to researchers.

An investigation published on Monday by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) claims that "saiko" fishing, whereby trawlers target the staple catch of Ghanaian canoe fishers and sell it back to fishing communities at a profit, landed approximately 100,000 tonnes of fish in 2017, worth $50m (40m) when sold at sea and up to $81m when sold at port.