More Whales To Die -EPA

Date published: August 25, 2014

By Mohammed Awal (awal19@gmail.com)

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has raised concerns over the increasing cetaceans (whales and dolphins) mortality in Ghana’s waters, fearing the worst was yet to come if nothing was done to curb the trend.

It said “there had been a remarkable increase in the incidence of the beaching of whales and dolphins on the coasts of Ghana between 2009 and 2013, documenting 24 deaths with 20, 3 and 1 in the Western, Greater and Central regions respectively.”

In order to have a full understanding of these deaths, “the EPA instituted a committee headed by Professor P.K. Ofori-Danso to investigate the possible causes of the increase in mortality and stranding of whales in Ghana’s coastal waters and to make recommendations for curbing future occurrence,” the EPA told journalists at a press conference last week.

Causes of death
Presenting the committee’s findings, Prof. Ofori-Danso said the causes of these deaths were “multi-factoral.”  He said during their investigations they had ‘hard’ evidences that suggested that these cetacean mortalities were as a result of  ship strikes, entanglement with fishing nets and targeted killings where meat from these cetaceans were used as baits in trapping sharks.

The highest number of mortalities of these sea mammals was reported in 2013 recording 12, from which 11 occurred in the Western region and one in Greater Accra he said at a press conference last week. Prof. Ofori-Danso, however, noted that due to the “highly decomposed” state of some of the carcasses the team came into contact with, it could be possible that some of the deaths did not occur in Ghana’s territorial waters.

He said: “Most of the cetaceans that beached in Ghana were in highly decomposed state and it is possible that some of the carcasses could have drifted from neighbouring countries into Ghanaian waters. “This is because the phenomenon of beaching of dead cetaceans has been reported in other countries in the Gulf of Guinea,” he added.

Recommendations
According to him, the committee’s investigations found out that there was massive institutional weakness in enforcing legislations that sought to protect these sea mammals. He, therefore, called for the need to strengthen the capacity of these institutions as well as streamline the legislative roles and loopholes.

Continuing further, Prof. Ofori-Danso recommended that appropriate measures should be instituted to recover ghost nets from the sea, effective management of urban waste in coastal communities, a satellite sighting and reporting system of cetaceans for ships installed, efficient management of maritime vessel traffic to reduce ship strikes and improved collaborations among relevant institutions.

The  government should embark on comprehensive legislative reforms by amending the Wild Animal Preservation Act, 1961 (Act 43) to include (whales and dolphins) in the list of animals to be protected as well as amending regulations under the maritime transport regime to ensure protection of cetaceans from ship strikes, he urged.

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