The scramble for gold through artisanal mining in Ghana’s rivers is leaving a trail of deaths: of fish, marine life, mangroves, livelihoods, and mostly for millions of dollars laundered abroad.
While Ghana’s fishing industry has long been one of its economic mainstays, riverine gold mining is changing all that.
Data from the Fisheries Commission reveals a disturbing trend of dwindling local fish production. Total inland fish production, which refers to fish from lakes and rivers, decreased to 131,551mt in 2024 from 142,583mt in 2023. Compared to 146,000mt in 2022.
Ghana continues to import hundreds of thousands of metric tons of fish, costing the country billions of cedis. According to the Ghana Statistical Service, Ghana imported over GH¢1.2 billion of frozen fish alone in 2024, underscoring this worrying trend.
Galamsey (illegal mining) isn’t just wrecking ecosystems—it’s a full-blown economic heist, poisoning rivers like the Pra and Ankobra, destroying mangroves, and billions siphoned out of the country under the cloak of gold trade.
The effect, fishermen are losing their livelihoods as harmful metals such as led and arsenic and silt found in these waters are killing marine and riverine species and destroying mangroves.
Sadly, gold mined through these illegal ways rarely enters Ghana’s formal economy. It’s sold to foreign middlemen—many from India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and smuggled out through airports, seaports and border towns like Bole. Swissaid, a nonprofit, reported that Ghana loses about $2billion worth of gold through smuggling to the UAE alone.
But President John Mahama has warned against the illegal trading of gold. Offenders could face a fine of up to GH₵2.4 million, a jail term of five to ten years, or both.
“Operate within the law, or face the full consequences,” he cautioned while delivering an address at the launch of the Goldbod special task force.
How mud and polluted water are destroying habitats for fish breeding
Mangroves are nature’s coastal defenders and natural nurseries; unfortunately, it is under threat by human activities such as deforestation and water pollution caused by Galamsey.
Dr. Etornam Kassah is a fisheries scientist and a lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba. She emphasises the importance of mangroves in marine and aquaculture ecosystems.
“Mangroves serve as a breeding ground for both marine and riverine species that come into the estuary to lay eggs. These eggs hatch into juveniles who live in the estuary until conditions are safe enough for them to either return back to sea or move upstream into the rivers.”
But today, the effects of artisanal mining have left the once-clear estuaries silty, their banks stripped of rich mangroves, and waters lethal to fish and other marine species.
The Pra estuary, which is the second largest to the Volta estuary, used to boast of over 30 marine species, but now, studies show that less than 30% of these remain.
Fish such as groupers (known locally as ‘efiii’), threadfin, referred to as ‘sukwei,’ a delicacy enjoyed with kenkey, shrimps and also oysters, used to be common in these estuaries but not anymore.
“Now you’d see clay particles clogging the gills of the fish, which results in a lot of die-offs. All we have now are catfish (adwen), snakeheads and a few other species capable of taking air from the surface of waterbodies for survival.” Dr. Kassah highlighted.
Kobla Agbetey is a fisherman who resides at Anlo beach, a small fishing community on the bank of the Pra estuary. Inhabitants of Anlo Beach are mainly fisherfolk who engage in artisanal fishing along the Pra and its estuary.
“We hardly see shellfish like ‘apoofii’, the mangroves have been covered with mud. The big fish do not breed in the mangroves anymore,” he emphasised.
Although research shows that soils and river bodies have some deposits of metals, human activities such as galamsey are increasing the heavy metal constituents in these water bodies, leading to several deficiencies in these riverine and marine species, which is also transferred to humans when fish are consumed.
The effects: a toll of economic hardship on fishermen
Anlo Beach is not the only fishing community suffering from this menace, although it is one of the hardest-hit due to its proximity to the Pra estuary.
Other relatively large fishing towns such as Shama, Aboasi and Aboadze are suffering from the infiltration of pollutants into the sea and spreading widely across the shores from the Pra estuary.
Fishermen in these communities say they have to travel about triple the distance they used to do over a decade ago, since the contaminated water is driving fish deep into the sea.
“At first, we used to catch tilapia and other fish, right here, close to the shore; unfortunately, that is not the case now.” Madam Takyiwaa, the fishing queen mother of Shama, emphasised.
Chief fisherman of Aboadze, Nana Adam Eduafo, decried the increased cost associated with travelling farther for a catch.
“Chemicals from polluted rivers are driving the fishes away, these fishes do not taste the same, sometimes the fish gets rotten a day or two after a catch. Previously, 10 gallons was enough to fish all night long, now, we use about 32 gallons.”
Industrial trawler invasion and pair-trawling raiding Ghana’s nearshore waters
Galamsey is not the only activity depleting fish stock, pair-trawling and catching of juvenile fishes also lingers. Artisanal fishing communities across Ghana’s coast are sound alarms as industrial pair trawlers increasingly invade upon nearshore waters destroying fish stocks.
“They catch the fingerlings, small fishes, they do not allow these fingerlings to grow.” Nana Adam Eduafo laments, despite increased patrols by the Ghana Navy and Marine Police.
Findings from a June 2025 report by Mongabay reveal rising tensions between traditional fishers and powerful industrial fleets. In response, Ghana’s fisheries minister, Emelia Arthur has announced an expansion of the Inshore Exclusion Zone (IEZ) from 6 to 12 nautical miles an effort aimed at protecting more than 200,000 small-scale fishermen across 12,000 canoes.
She made this announcement at the U.N. Ocean Conference in Nice, France
Response by Authorities
Chief Executive of Shama Municipal Assembly, Ortis Dentsu expressed worry about the development. He was optimistic that efforts by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and other related ministries in the fight against ‘galamsey’ will be crucial to the restoration of aquatic habitats along the river and sea.
“The galamsey task force set up by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources will be crucial in combatting the menace upstream. I believe their collaboration with security forces will help.”
He supports plans to enroll some of these fishermen, who have lost their livelihoods onto some of government’s support programmes.
“We have plans to register some of these fisherfolk on the National Apprenticeship Programme and the Adwumawura Project to support their livelihoods.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture inaugurated a 13-member Technical Advisory Committee in May 2025, to provide strategic guidance and oversight on the management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
The committee will also promote the resilience of coastal ecosystems and local livelihoods ensuring the replenishment of fish stocks aimed at safeguarding an effective conservation of marine biodiversity.
The project received support from the Thomson Reuters Foundation through the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) as part of its global work aimed at strengthening free, fair and informed societies. Any financial assistance or support provided to the journalist has no editorial influence. The content of this article belongs solely to the author and is not endorsed by or associated with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Thomson Reuters, Reuters, nor any other affiliates.
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