Cooperate with fish death investigations – Hawa Koomson

The Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mavis Hawa Koomson, has asked fisher folks at Osu in the Korle Klottey Municipality in the Greater Accra Region to cooperate with authorities in the ongoing investigations to ascertain the reasons behind the death of fishes washed ashore on Friday.

She said it was important for some examination to be conducted to establish the wholesomeness or otherwise of the fishes before the public consumed them.

She also appealed to individuals who had consumed some of the fishes to avail themselves to be placed under medical surveillance.

The minister made the appeal at a stakeholder durbar at Osu Anorho in Accra on Tuesday 6 April 2021.

The durbar was to enable the inter-sectoral committee tasked to investigate the phenomenon to interact with the fisher folks and seek their opinion on the matter.

Koomson noted that even though occasionally some amount of fishes had been washed ashore, the volume and magnitude of what happened over the weekend raised issues of concern.

She said samples had already been taken to the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to be examined and the findings would be made public soon.

She said it was important that “we remained each others keeper and ensured that our health was of paramount concern to all.”

Koomson said the government would not shirk its responsibility of protecting the citizenry, however, “it would do so with the livelihood of the people in mind.”

On her part, the Chief Executive Officer of the FDA, Mimi Darko, said her outfit had commenced investigations into the circumstances that led to the large scale of fishes being washed ashore dead.

Unwholesome

She said the state in which the fishes were found at the beaches made it unwholesome for consumption, stressing that “even if our investigations prove that they died through natural causes, it is important for us to note that how they were found at the beaches will not make it right for consumption.”

She said her outfit was there to ensure food safety for all and that was exactly why it was part of the inter-sectoral committee.

Some of the fisher folks said the occurrence was nothing new since occasionally, a large volume of fishes were washed ashore.

According to them, such incidence occurred occasionally due to changes in climatic conditions and they did not suspect any chemical pollution of the fishes.

Present at the meeting were the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Director of the Fisheries Commission, Atta Dadze, and the Chief Fisherman for Osu.