Ghana: undercover video reveals shocking scale of fish discards

This secretly filmed footage shows the crew of what is understood to be a Ghanaian-registered, Chinese-owned vessel throwing away huge amounts of fish.

The licence for this vessel is reported as being demersal, which means it should be trawling for fish along the bottom. But many of the fish that can be seen include pelagic species like sardinella, meaning that this catch is considered illegal.

The smaller fish are not of commercial export value, but they are the staple of small-scale, artisanal fishing communities and a food source on which two million people directly depend.

Recent figures show that nearly 60% of the fish in Ghana is now imported, and the country has only one nationally owned trawler in operation: the remaining 75 are linked to Chinese ownership.