Fishing rules & seasons

Canoes keep fishing through this year's closed season. The exemption does not lift the other rules: the weekly fishing holiday still applies, and light fishing, chemicals and explosives remain banned, with enforcement promised to be stricter this year under the Fisheries and Aquaculture Act, 2025 (Act 1146).

Trawlers stop fishing for two months. The Fisheries Enforcement Unit has said monitoring will be intensified nationwide, with sanctions for vessels that break the closure.

Semi-industrial vessels stop for one month and may return to sea on 1 August 2026.

The customary non-fishing day on Cape Coast's beaches is Tuesday, as along most of Ghana's coast. Canoes stay ashore; a quiet beach on a Tuesday is the rule working, not a bad day.

The National Petroleum Authority's current price works out at GH¢176.40 per gallon; Landing Beach Committees may round up to GH¢180 but no further, and the Minister has warned of sanctions for overpricing.

Cape Coast's five landing beaches — Ola, Brofoyedur, Abrofo Mpoano, Ekon and Duakor Abakam — each have a Landing Beach Committee that sells premix and is now audited quarterly by the National Premix Fuel Secretariat. Under L.I. 2233, 53% of premix proceeds must fund community development; the February 2026 public accounting was the first of its kind.

Ahead of the Fetu Afahye festival, the Oguaa Traditional Council bans fishing in the Fosu Lagoon, alongside bans on noise-making and funerals in the traditional area. Asafo companies monitor compliance and sanctions apply. The Omanhene ritually lifts the lagoon ban as part of the festival sequence.