NET CONFISTICATION: A Blunt Management Instrument
Net making 'aboa akese', Butre, Western Region, Ghana Ghanaian fishermen, traditionally, have enjoyed unimpeded access to the sea. Fishing with their traditionally handwoven twine nets and catching what they needed for subsistence and selling the excess. This practice continued but with time, the population increased. To compensate for the increase in population, the number of canoes increased and so did the number of fishermen and the fishing methods changed. Fishermen got access to new fishing equipment - they no longer relied on the handwoven nets but rather 'ready-made' nets. Fishermen saw fishing as a business and no longer a means of subsistence. Outboard engines were attached to their traditional dugout canoes, iceboxes were built and one-day fishing trips now extended to 3 or 4 days! Net lengths increased and mesh sizes decreased as there was now access to a cheaper form of net, the mono-filament nylon nets. "It catches fish faster because the fis