Doubts
But data collection is just one step — it is what happens at sea which counts, and the support of local fishermen is vital.
“We used to catch enough fish… Now, it is difficult to catch fish where we used to,” fisherman Kojo Amuaysee, 42, said, pulling two sharks out of his motorised canoe after returning to port.
But he said the fishing sector had “too many people”.
“I don’t want to believe that it is the killing of the sharks and rays that is sending fish away.”
Toe blamed declining catches on practices by illegal trawlers from neighbouring Ivory Coast and Guinea.
“They come fishing in our waters and later dump the unwanted fish, which pollutes the sea and chases away the living fish — they go farther out.”
The EJF is backing the conservation project with a grassroots programme, helped by video presentations, to explain to fishermen why sharks and rays are so important.
The outreach suggests that fishermen can become keenly sensitive to conservation — some have even suggested that a law be passed to punish shark overfishing, said EJF’s Augustine Fayiah.
“During the three years we will get to know if the fishermen will restrict themselves. If not, the government may decide to pass a law on stopping the killing of the two species,” he said.
