Chinese vessel fined US$1m for commiting same offence

The Lu Rong Yuan Yu 956, a Chinese fishing vessel, has been arrested again for the same illegal fishing crimes it was apprehended for a year ago, the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) has said.

The Marine Police apprehended the vessel again on May 30, and again the charges brought against it were fishing with nets with a mesh size below the legal limit and catching under-sized fish.

The vessel, which is operated by the Chinese company Rongcheng Ocean Fishery Co. Ltd., is expected to be detained until June 16, when the case is due to come before court.

Narrating the chain of events, EJF said that in October 2019, the owners were issued with a fine of US$1m by an out-of-court settlement committee and an additional GH¢124,000 for the fish onboard the vessel.

However, the owners refused to pay the fine and the case returned to court. Despite this, the vessel’s licence was renewed and the trawler put to sea again, fishing in the waters of both Ghana and neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire.

This blatant disregard for the law, it said, is enabled by a lack of deterrent sanctions and the decision taken by government officials in the full knowledge of these crimes to re-license the vessel before the fine was paid.

It said if the government does not crack down on these practices it would endanger the livelihoods and food security of millions of Ghanaians.

It said under international law, Ghana has a responsibility to establish and implement a system of deterrent sanctions that deprives offenders of the benefits flowing from their illegal fishing activities.

The fact that the vessel was authorised by the Ghanaian authorities to fish in Cote d’Ivoire, despite its failure to pay a fine for serious illegal fishing offences, shows that Ghana’s decisions on these cases have international importance, it added.

EJF’s Executive Director Steve Trent said it is vital to ensure that the vessel pays the full fines in both cases and that the outcomes of this and other cases are published on the Ministry of Fisheries’ website.

“Perpetrators cannot simply choose not to pay a fine and go back to exactly the same criminal actions as before. That is not how justice works. To safeguard Ghana’s food security, livelihoods and stability, the government must act to tackle this issue across the whole fleet.”

Around 90 percent of Ghana’s industrial fishing fleet is linked to Chinese ownership. As Ghana’s fisheries laws prohibit foreigners from engaging in joint ventures in the industrial trawl sector, Chinese organisations operate through Ghanaian “front” companies, using opaque corporate structures to import their vessels, register and obtain a licence.