Our Perk was Sargassum

Sargassum 
Sargassum is a genus of brown (class Phaeophyceae) macroalgae (seaweed) in the order Fucales. Numerous species are distributed throughout the temperate and tropical oceans of the world, where they generally inhabit shallow water and coral reefs. However, the genus may be best known for its planktonic (free-floating) species. While most species within the class Phaeophyceae are predominantly cold water organisms that benefit from nutrients upwelling, the genus Sargassum appears to be an exception to this general rule. Any number of the normally benthic species may take on a planktonic, often pelagic existence after being removed from reefs during rough weather. However, two species (S. natans and S. fluitans) have become holopelagic — reproducing vegetatively and never attaching to the seafloor during their lifecycle. The Atlantic Ocean's Sargasso Sea was named after the algae, as it hosts a large amount of Sargassum.

 In recent times (actually since 2010) fishermen from the Western Region of Ghana have been hauling in tons of Sargassum in place of fish in their nets. Their natural instinct is to blame the government and the oil companies! You can't blame them much because they have constructed the timeline for the arrival of the sargassum with the limited information that is available to them and that timeline coincides with the exploration of oil in Ghana! this blame game seems to benefit some who have strategically placed themselves to use the bad press to exploit money from these oil companies (that's not my headache anyways-if it suits their organisational agenda that's fine).
Fishermen hauling in a net load of sargassum, Western Region, Ghana

 My beef really is why government agencies mandated to disseminate such information to the fisherman are not doing what they collect monthly salaries for? Is that they enjoy seeing these fishers running to their sea gods for solutions? Na wa o! I was part of a research team in 2012 looking at the efficiency of fishing nets and we happen to have experienced this fishermen's frustration first-hand when our net also landed nothing but heaps of the algae! and this is what some of these fishers face daily after investing the little they have in subsidised (another discussion for another day, fuel subsidy) premix fuel and come back with a boat load of sargassum. 

 We are trying to introduce co-management in fisheries, that system thrives with information availability. Use this as your point of entry and bring these fishers close by giving them the needed information about this sargassum menace! 

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