The objective of this report is to analyze the needs and opportunities for culture-based fisheries (CBF) and to assess the institutional capability to support their development and management. Opportunities for CBF are viewed in the context of inland fisheries and aquaculture. Where such support is insufficient for development, recommendations are made for activities, some of which are for technical assistance projects and others are for actions not requiring external inputs. Investment opportunities are also considered.
The Terms of Reference are in Field Working Paper 14.
Comprehensive assessments of opportunities for culture-based fisheries have not been made previously. A limited possibility of stocking “no more than 15” community dams and dugouts is mentioned by the NORRIP Technical Unit (1982).
Apart from Lake Volta where the reports, with one exception (Agyenim-Boateng, 1989) are now quite dated, and apart from spotty coverage elsewhere (e.g., Weigel, 1985; Eyeson et al., 1989; Gordon, 1989a; Briamah, 1990), recent information on inland fisheries is scarce. Landings are monitored at some points on Lake Volta, at some places along rivers and on some of the larger and smaller reservoirs, but a comprehensive picture of inland fisheries and their performance is lacking.
Assessments of the potential for aquaculture development and of constraints have been made by a number of authors and organizations, both Ghanaian (Denyoh, 1982, 1989; Acquay, 1985; Asafo, 1986, 1988, 1989; Gordon, 1989b, 1989c; Fisheries Department, 1990) and expatriate (Broughton Associates, 1980; Rabanal, 1985; Commonwealth Secretariat, 1987; Pedini, 1987; Balarin, 1988; FAO Investment Centre, 1989; Satia and Vincke, 1988; Sakura, 1988; Hynes and Associates, 1990). These provide valuable insights for assessing CBF. The mission has carefully reviewed this information, but no attempt is made to summarize the reports here. Rather, this report avoids, in as much as possible, repeating information already compiled. The report includes some information on aquaculture in addition to that relating specifically to culture based fisheries. This is due to both operational reasons and to the normal overlaps, particularity within government institutions, which exist between the two areas.
Culture-based fisheries are those in which periodic or one-time replenishment of stocks is from cultured fishes. Such fisheries are common in many countries with salmon and trout the most common examples in temperate areas of the Western Hemisphere and carp fisheries in tropical and temperate zones of mainland Asia as another. Introductions of new species will almost always fall into the CBF category because of the need to employ hatchery-raised fish to ensure against the accidental introduction of diseases with the transplants and to supply fish in sufficient numbers. In insular S. Asia reservoir fisheries are based on introduced tilapias.
In Cuba CBF have been established by stocking tilapias in reservoirs (Mari, in press) and in NE Brazil stocking has contributed to an average reservoir yield of 118 kg/ha/y of fish and 30 kg/ha/y of Macrobrachium (Studart, in press)
The need or opportunity to support fisheries by fish culture arises from a variety of situations that can be summarized as follows:
In each case it is first necessary to demonstrate the need or opportunity and to estimate the benefits in relation to costs.
Stocking of water bodies began in the late 1940s in connection with the construction of community water supplies in Northern Ghana. Many small water bodies have been constructed in other parts of the country for the same purpose. Apart from the north, they are most prevalent in Volta Region where, in the past, stocking has been carried out. Quarterly and annual reports of the Fisheries Department show that stocking of dams and dugouts in the upper regions has been carried out at varying levels of intensity over the years. Stocking remains a Fisheries Department activity in the same area and also in the Volta Region, but operations have been hindered by a lack of mobility and availability of fingerlings.
