A MOMENT AT SEA

So, after 16weeks of being out and about on the shores of beaches especially the Jamestown Beach in Accra, Ghana, I decide to sign out of the Fishing Subject by having one last experience with the fishermen. I am going fishing!!!! Am actually excited.

What does a fisherman do before he comes back with Tons of fishes, what are some of the risks he takes on the sea? What are the remarkable experiences he applies to everyday life activities? These are simple yet important questions which influenced my decision to get on board with the fishermen to sea.   You can join me by leaving your comment below. 

trust me this was not as cossy as I expected. no life Jackets..a great risk. it was SScaarry! but fun in a way. seeing the kids swim..watching the fishermen on duties. the whole beach scene. etc.

                                      Catch me if you can

Thank You!

CHILDLABOR OR TALENT MAKING? The fishing perspective.

I had the opportunity to live in a fishing community called Busua in Takoradi, in the Western Region of Ghana for a week. Many interesting things got me stuck in love with the place. However, one usual yet serious practice that I witnessed throughout was that, children as young as 7yrs went fishing with their parents and guardians. There was nothing like School for them.  When these various parents are asked their reasons why they allow their kids to stay out of the classroom, they sing the same chorus but in different pitches. Most of them respond by saying “our forefathers trained us in this profession”. In other words, “Tradition goeson”.

Child Labor refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, morally and socially dangerous and harmful. This practice is considered exploitative by many international organizations. Legislation across the world prohibits Childlabour. Child Labour is an international problem affecting millions of people and many countries around the world. ChildLabour and child trafficking shares some vein consequently. In Ghana, West Africa and other parts Africa, the internal trafficking of children is one big challenge. It has been recorded by the International LabourOrganisation, that Agriculture is the major employer of Child Labour in Africa. The problem is severe in sub-saharan African were more than 40% of all children aged 5-14 labour for survival, or about 48million children. Children have worked in farms, homes, and the sea over a long history. This is not unique to Africa, it happened in Europe, America and every other human society throughout history, prior to 1950s. Scholars suggests that this work, specially in rural  areas, was a form of schooling and vocational education, where children learned he arts and skills from parents, and  as adults continued to work in the same hereditary occupation. Child labour to some is a way to instill a sense of  responsibility and a way of life in children in particularly rural communities.

Whilst Child labor by both boys and girls takes many forms, the elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor (WFCL) as defined by Article 3 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) convention No.182 is a priority.  

                                  kids of school going age at the jamestown beach on a thursday afternoon

The underlining cause of childlabour is Poverty. And this was no different in Jamestown Beach. Here, kids go to sea together with the older fisher folks, the girl child, apart from going asea, goes to smoke and sell the fish with mother. On an outer mind, one would ask, how much impact does the child’s strength or presence bring onto what he has been involved with? Does this act satisfy the motive of “adding an extra helping hand”. As little as it seems, to them it is productive.  I believe strongly that as developing continents and Nations rise above their poverty scale, ChildLabour would naturally reduce, if it doesn’t die off completely. Notwithstanding, as individuals and organizations we can help out in our little ways. Reach a hand to the Child who never got what you had when you were like them!

FISHING EQUIPMENTS

FISHING EQUIPMENTS

Just as shoemakers own their professional equipment's and tools, Fishermen do likewise, together with many other professionals. On a typical fishing day, you would see canoons with different sizes, almost similar shapes, and different owners on the waters of the sea and along the coast.

It is very obvious and evident that a fisherman’s tool is his canoon and fishing net. It is interesting to learn that, there are more tools and equipments than just the normal canoon and fishing net we always see. Globally, all management systems have introduced some form of access and/use rights to fishery resources. This is also the case for the Common FisheriesPolicy(CFP),  which provides inter alia for the granting of national license  and quotas, the limitation of  “days at sea” for certain fisheries and various  measures to limit fleet capacity.  Although the basic mechanisms for CFP for allocating fishing right among the member states as proven to effective, in other respects the CFP  has  fallen short of its objectives, as its shown by the depleted conditions of many fish stocks and poor economic performance of some parts of the fleet. The current main objective of the CFP is to conserve resources in other to preserve the ecosystems and sustain the economic activities.

So we go on to get a bit of more education as we learn about some tools used in fishing. There is rarely a canoon without a paddle. That is basic to us all, I believe. There is the Fish finder, pliers, hooks, weight, scales etc

SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECT ON TRADITIONAL MEDIA

INTRODUCTION:

The media landscape has dramatically changed over the past decade, with traditional media (e.g. newspaper, television) now supplemented by social media (e.g. blogs, discussion, forums).Over the past years, new media or social media has given a new shift to the concept and motives of journalism. This work seeks to explain how this new media and social media have been beneficial to us and how it has affected the traditional way of carrying out media and how this media houses have strategised to meet up with the changing trends of reporting news and media as a whole.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

 Social media refers to the means of interaction among people in which they create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual communication and networks. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Heinlein define social media as a group of internet based applications that build on ideological and technological foundations and that allows the creation and exchange of user generated content. This interaction and sharing and easy communication has been made possible by “NEW MEDIA”.

NEW MEDIA:

 New media has enhanced social media effectively. Social media includes Facebook, twitter, Foursquare, YouTube etc. With all these developments, ordinary people who are supposed to be traditionally oriented (Radio, TV, and Newspaper) all have gained access to digital technology and the internet of which they have subscribed to many social media.

 Examples of some traditional media (television/ radio/ newspaper) often leave the audiences out of construction of news. The rise of social media in one way or the other has made journalists out of every individual. This is where we come across the term “CITIZEN JOURNALIST”. Citizen journalism is also known as public, participatory, democratic or guerrilla journalism which is based on the society playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting analysis and disseminating news and information. New media technology such as networking and media sharing websites in addition to the increase in prevalence of cellular phones, have a made citizen journalism more accessible to people worldwide, citizens can often report breaking news more quickly.

EFFECTS SOCIAL MEDIA ON TRADITIONAL MEDIA:

There has been a rise in greater accessibility rate of news due to their availability of the new media/social media. Because of the rise in social media, people or audience are able to access news faster and easier due to social networking sites such as Facebook, twitter. Before one of those traditional media news outlets would carry a crew  to go video the event that had occurred , an audience with a glance will quickly video it and just share it on the various social  media or networks.  Likewise the traditional media or the mainstream media who would have been at the scene would rather get the second hand of the news. Audiences are everywhere at any time and at any moment whatever happens around them as news worthy would be captured faster than the mainstream media would have done. With all the above points and the introduction of social media, it is fair to say that the traditional media has lost its influence on the human society causing its decline. But these traditional media or mainstream media have not just been watching but recently have taken strategies to help them meet the current media changes.

It is believed that we are witnessing the emergence of powerful new voices and networks which can act independently of the traditional media and the term “the fifth estate” has been developed due to this emergence of powerful tool which has given voices to people.

STRATEGIES MEDIA HOUSES HAVE TAKEN.

Since the Asian Tsunami in the London bombings when audience footage led the main news bulleting for the first timer the BBC has invested heavily in the current audience to contribute direct experience in major events. It establish a well-staffed user generated hub,to process and authenticated audience material as well as to engage  more deeply with audience members to co create content, write articles and shoot  photos. In average week the team process over 10000 email content, 1000 stills in up 100 videos.

 Traditional media outlets have gone from their usual way of presenting news to audience by adding and incorporating social media tools in order to aid their course. Television outlets, radio and newspaper all have Facebook, twitter, YouTube and others which they feed with update news on these social media outlets for their audience to view.  

Most media houses now have online service whereby audience can now view their programmes online with their devices. This has helped to bring their audience closer. Media houses now engage citizen journalist by allowing them send in their videos and stories which makes them part of the news process.

 This media houses have used various methods to meet this media changes. Polls where readers are asked to make multiple choice or binary response. Message boards which engage readers on threaded online conversations or database on topics often initiated by readers. Have your say, audience comments and stories, question and answers segment, blogs, your media and your story. All this features have aided this media houses to keep in touch with time.

CONCLUSION:

In a nutshell, new media in relation to social media has given the world a closer way of getting closer to each other and interacting in the best possible way, providing people to access news in wider and faster ways.  The Egyptian Riot is an example of peoples power through social media, which was used to organised and rally people to become a strong mobile force which ultimately ousted a dictator.  (Facebook, twitter).  This media houses have noticed the power of this social media outlets and have now strategized and taken measures to incorporate them into their work.

REFERENCES:  Kaplan Andreas M., Heinlein Michael (2010). "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and Opportunities of social media". Business Horizons53 (1). p. 67LISTER, M (2009).

NEW MEDIA: A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. LONDON, ROUTLEDGE.

WWW. MAGRAW-HILL.CO. UK.

GROUP MEMBERS:

MORRIS MYLES GOODMAN

NOVIEKU-BABATUNDE ADEOLA

ADABAWUNI EMMANUEL:

ESSUMANBA-JOSIAH EMELIA:

ABUBAKAR YUSSIF:

The Fishing Community

Not only does an identified community as ‘ Fishing Community’’ create rooms for  Employment  and Revenue, but a Fishing Community gives that community a sense of Identity. The James Town Fishing Community  in Accra is an accepted community in relation to the fishing world. 

 Taking a walk in this community, the environment is filled  with an atmosphere of  sea breeze and mixed aroma of smoked,fried,fresh fishes. Men go A sea.. women  help their husbands  and their trading partners  by getting the fishes and sea foods from the coast and selling it finally. Some other men do the trading themselves though.  One amazing situation I sited this time  around was the fact that kids go with their fathers  to sea. Issues concerning this has been raised in the past as this act being Child Labor or  Talent Training, of which i would write about in my subsequent topics. In an interview with a fisherman..’he added that, ideally,in recent times this act is a bit unfair to the kids involved in this act,more importantly when education has remained vital and compulsory. He also said..this practice of training kids into the fishing profession     has lived with them since they were born,therefore…tradition goes on”

Tuesdays are non-fishing days for fishermen in  James Town and other  Fishing Communities in Ghana. On these days, households, apart from the the children who are to be in school, are free. Households do their laundry, cook, visits, the youthful ladies go to the market and shop, the youngmen mostly play at the coast of the beach. Some swim..some play football..some ran etc.

                    Tuesday Jamestown Beach

Fishermen,Fishmongers and the Fish.

While we are on with our next topic…I enjoyed my time at the Jamestown Beach with the coastal folks. It was very interesting to know from a fisherman that..”one who went on board in attempt to fish,but came back with no fish can never be called a Fishermen’’. I found this assertion relative.  Do doctors save life's everyday? Certainly not.

   Today's topic as mentioned above centers on the fish. Who goes for the fish, the wholesalers and retailers, the semi-final state of the fish  before it reaches consumers. Whiles the Fisherman's friend is the Fishing Net..I have no doubt that the Fishing Net becomes the enemy of Fishes.

SMOKED FISHES

In Ghana Fishermen are known for an aggressive nature. The ‘fishermen fellowship’, a term I coined at  the beautiful sight of seeing fishermen drawing their canoon on-shore. Most fishermen lend a helping hand, sing their favorite ‘morale-chorus’ in pulling and pushing the canoon on-shore. To me it was a very amazing sight…so I ended up capturing this scene. I simply admired the strength   of the older fishermen.

                                                THE  'FISHERMEN FELLOWSHIP'.

A woman who sold fishes caught by her husband was called a Fishwife. Fishmongers are people who sell raw fish and seafood. Fishmongers simply work at selecting and purchasing,handling,gutting,bonding, displaying, merchandising and selling their product. Just as every profession comes with ethics…it is nothing different in the fishmongers world. Fishmongers use tools like the, Pliers to pull out bones,a fish scaler to remove scales,  a Filleting knife to get rid of flesh from the bones, protective gloves, a curved knife for gutting and removing and a short strong knife for opening oysters and other shellfish. Quiet recently, the fisheries Ministry in Ghana conceded that the countries fisheries sub-sector is in crisis following what officials are describing as ‘Over-Fishing’. The Ministry warned that without a drastic change of attitude in the sector, the dwindling fortunes  of the industry will continue. The fishing sub-sector, according to statistics, has the lowest growth rate in the Agriculture Sector in Ghana even though it improved from 2.8percent in 2002 to 3.5percent in 2004. As at Thursday,26^th Sept 2013, from an interview with a fishmonger in Jamestown, she expressed bitter concerns in relation to the ‘depletion’ of fishes in Jamestown and how she has to go to Tema Fishing Harbor for fishes.

                                  INTERVIEW WITH A FISHMONGER.

 

I plead with any reader who is capable of improving the state of the current fishing sub-sector of the country to do so.

fishing and fishes in Ghana

MANY A time, we enjoy our meals when its garnished  with all types of edible sea foods of our choice. Have you ever wondered when the fish on a meal was fished out? The processes in  getting the fish, the preservation methods, the sea or pond that nurtured the fish?etc.. I bet to differ, we are much interested in consuming that delicious meal.

         

As the very first post on this blog, I come in to talk about  fishing,an activity that involves trying to catch fish in any aquatic environment. The history of fishing goes as far as the creation of man and other living creature and Fishing is an ancient practice that dates back to at least the beginning of the Paleolithic period about 40,000 years ago.Fishes, as special organisms also have special features such as the gills and lack limbs with digits. Most fishes are cold-blooded(Ectothermic) allowing their body temperature to vary in ambient temperate aquatic environments, though large active white sharks and Tuna can hold a higher core temperature. Fishes can be found in nearly all aquatic environments.. from the highest mountains stream to the deepest oceans. techniques in fishing includes hand gathering, spearing, netting etc.

fishermen sewing their net on the walkway on a tuesday

fishing in Ghana increased considerably in the late 1960s, from 105,100 tons of marine fish caught in 1967 to 230,100 tons in 1971^. In 1982 the yield was 234,100 tons, composed of 199,100 tons of marine varieties and 35,000 tons of freshwater fish from Lake Volta. The industry was hit by fuel shortages, inadequate storage facilities, and the general economic difficulties of the 1970s and the 1980s^.Nevertheless, by 1988 the fish catch was 302,900 tons; by 1991 it amounted to 289,675 tons, down from more than 319,000 tons in 1990.

Apparently, fishes dominate in their favorable aquatic environment. In an interview with a fisherman along the coast of Gulf of Guinea, i identified some fishes that dominate in the James Town Beach, in Accra Ghana. Watch interview

 

According to FAO statistics, the total number of commercial fishermen and fish farmers is estimated to be 38million in the world. Occupation as a fisherman in my society is greatly influenced with the fact that, you were born and bread in a fishing community. In Ghana, fishermen rest on tuesdays by not going a fishing.   

         

 

   

fishermen selecting their catch

                                                                                                                                                

 Fishes are a major source of protein in Ghana. fishes, either boiled, fried, grilled, salted, smoked is very delicious. these methods are also in effect used to preserve the fishes from decaying.

smoked fish and dried fish

it must be added that the fishing activity varies commercial purposes,recreational purposes and management. In my quest to get more findings, knowledge, pictures and videos for these topic, i realized that for  fishing communities like James Town and Chorkor  provides not only a source of food and work but also a community and cultural  identity.