Fishing Observer Missing On Chinese Vessel

The Executive Director of the Fisheries Commission, Michael Arthur-Dadzie, has said the crew members of a Chinese fishing vessel, who were arrested over the disappearance of a Ghanaian fishing observer, Emmanuel Essien, have been granted bail.

He said from what he had gathered, the police had granted police inquiry bail to the crew.

“When I heard the report of the missing case on July 5, I asked them to lodge a report to the (Tema) Harbour police and the navy; all that was done. All the crew members were arrested and taken into custody. My information is that the police in the process of their investigation granted them police inquiry bill and have even called for an extract and a sea trip,” he disclosed.

Essien, a fishing observer assigned to the MengXin 15, a Chinese vessel operating in Ghana, had been reported missing for about three weeks now.

Some three weeks ago, Essien embarked on a scheduled observer mission with the said vessel but has since not been seen and his colleagues are alleging that the vessel returned from its deep-sea operations without the observer.

It is standard practice to assign observers to foreign and local fishing vessels that fish in Ghanaian waters.

The monitoring, control and surveillance department of the Ministry for Fisheries and Aqua Culture is responsible for the assignment of observers.

“Basically, every fishing vessel goes to sea on board with an observer who will record all activities at sea and report back to the Ministry of Fisheries. Recently, there was a Chinese vessel by name MengXin 15 with observer Emmanuel on board.

“Five days after the trip, the vessel came back reporting that the observer was missing,” one of the observers told Citi News which was monitored by GHANAWISH.COM condition of anonymity.