Dase, a Fante word interpreted as “evidence”, is a mobile application that was developed by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) and funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to help fishers curtail illegal fishing activities along Ghanaian waters.
The user-friendly application functions using geotagged photos and optional videos to provide evidence for appropriate authorities to help clamp down on the activities of perpetrators that threaten their livelihood.
Mr Socrates Segbor, Fisheries Programmes Manager of EJF, at the launch described the threats faced by fishers and the entire sector as a whole from illegal activities such as dumping and discarding of fish catch, illegal trans-shipment as well as the destruction of fishing gears that tend to go unattended due to lack of appropriate evidence.
In addition to the project, plans are the establishment of surveillance facilities along the Central Region coast to support and empower fishers to report on instances of IUU fishing activities they observe at sea as well as cases of conflict with other fleets using technology solutions.