Following the tons of fishes that were washed ashore at some coastal areas in the country over the weekend, several Ghanaians, including fishermen and fishmongers collected as many fishes as they could for either personal consumption or commercial purposes.
Some fisherfolks who spoke to GhanaWeb believe the melon-headed whales and other types of fishes that were washed ashore were poisoned but still sold to consumers to earn an income.
Their fear is that people who consume these fishes do not fall sick or pass away in extreme cases.
According to an eye witness, “On Friday night between 11:30pm and 12:00am, we heard blasting in the area. So we tried to figure out what happened and we started smelling something like car bud. We all didn’t understand until 3 to 4:00am that we saw people picking up the fishes until daybreak. some have picked about 60 pieces of fishes, some 30 among others.”
“We know they are fishes but we believe that there are chemicals in them. I don’t even think people have an interest to eat these fishes because most of them have sold the ones they picked out to others. We have so far not heard any bad news from the people who came to buy so we are still praying that no one gets sick or dies after eating these fishes,” one of the fisherfolks told GhanaWeb.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Fisheries Ministry, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have begun investigations into the incident that occurred at the Osu Castle Beach, Korle-Gonno and other coastal lines in the country.
These stakeholders have however warned Ghanaians to be mindful of the fishes they buy for consumption.
The police is also poised to arrest anyone found distributing the fishes washed ashore over the weekend.
