The fish mummies of Ghana: A female touch to small-scale fishery

World Fisheries Day, 21 November 2025 Catalysing Sustainable Fisheries and Responsible Aquaculture Action for People, Oceans, and Climate

Women's contribution to small-scale fisheries, though significant, is often underreported and unrecognised. The participation of women in the sector has been limited to processing and marketing, primarily due to culturally prescribed gender roles, except for a few who have dared to cross into harvesting. Not only is their participation restricted to specific phases of the value chain, but their voice in decision-making regarding the resource is also not taken into consideration. World Fisheries Day is observed annually on 21 November and provides an opportunity to highlight the underreported contributions of women in Ghana's small-scale fisheries.

In Northern Ghana, where women along the White Volta River spend hours in their canoes, covering long distances on the river to harvest finfish. In the marine sector, women referred to as fish mummies have the financial power to sponsor fishing expeditions; others own boats and employ men to fish using them.

Women's Contribution to Fish Harvesting                      

Women can fully participate in fish harvesting; however, culturally prescribed fisheries gender roles have limited their participation in the sector to primarily gleaning invertebrates, and have put men at the centre of fishing activities. A few exceptions exist in Northern Ghana, where women in some communities along the White Volta River spend hours in their canoes, covering long distances on the river to harvest finfish, just as their male counterparts do. In the marine sector, women referred to as Fish Mummies have the financial power to sponsor fishing expeditions; others own boats and employ men to fish using them. Though they don't get into boats and onto the water to catch fish, they form the financial force that pushes the boats from the shore onto the water for a catch. Behind the success of the male-dominated fish harvesting sector in Ghana are the women who play a behind-the-scenes role.

Women's Contribution to Post-Harvest Activities

Women are the driving force of Ghana's post-harvest fisheries sector. They dominate processing, preservation, marketing, and distribution as their traditionally assigned gender roles, ensuring that fish remains available, affordable, and safe for consumption across the country. Women's role as fish processors begins the moment a boat docks. Fish that arrive at the landing site through the effort of fishermen are perishable. Processing is achieved through methods such as smoking, salting, drying, frying, and fermenting, which preserve this perishable food for several months. They process and preserve food during glut seasons, making it available during lean seasons. Women in the processing sector work to ensure the availability of a significant protein source for approximately 60% of Ghanaians throughout the seasons, ensuring quality, extending shelf life, adding value, minimising losses, and ensuring food security. Their expertise has a significant influence on the final market price and consumer acceptance in both local and export markets.

Smoked, salted and dried fish taken by me in a processed fish market.

Women play a central role in the distribution and marketing of fish in Ghana. From the landing beach to the market centres, from the coast to inland communities, women move fish across the length and breadth of the country to get the fish to the consumer's table. Their networks connect fishing communities to markets across Ghana, and in some cases, into neighbouring countries. Their activities sustain livelihoods along the fisheries value chain and contribute to the local economy's growth.

Contribution to Household Nutrition and Food Security

Beyond post-harvest activities, women play vital roles in improving household nutrition and ensuring food security in fishing communities. Fish is a staple protein in many Ghanaian households, and women ensure that their families have reliable access to fish through their post-harvest activities. Their involvement directly influences the frequency of supply and consumption. Women's earnings from fish processing and trade empower them as caregivers of their homes, enhancing household budgets. Their economic participation translates into feeding more diverse and nutritious diets, especially for children and vulnerable family members. Women contribute to food security through fish processing and preservation, which extends beyond immediate consumption and benefits the broader community. This reduces vulnerability to seasonal fish shortages and stabilises household nutrition levels.

Women contribute to food security through fish processing and preservation, which extends beyond immediate consumption. This reduces vulnerability to seasonal fish shortages and stabilises household nutrition levels.

Untapped Potential Towards Sustainable Fisheries

Despite the immense contributions of women in the fisheries sector in Ghana, they are often excluded from management decisions related to the exploitation of the resource; fisheries governance is typically considered a male-dominated domain. This has negatively impacted compliance with fisheries regulations, allowing Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing to flourish. The illegal trade of transhipping trash fish, locally referred to as saiko, where men earning the title of fisherman go to sea without fishing gear, bringing back frozen fish slabs, has gained traction. Women count their losses as they process illegally caught fish. Although weak compliance is often attributed to inadequate enforcement by government agencies, fish processors and traders can ensure compliance with fisheries regulations by saying no to bad fish if their voices are given the recognition they deserve.  

The illegal trade of transhipping trash fish, locally referred to as saiko, where men earning the title of fisherman go to sea without fishing gear, bringing back frozen fish slabs, has gained traction.

The theme for this year's World Fisheries Day, Catalysing Sustainable Fisheries and Responsible Aquaculture Action for People, Oceans, and Climate, emphasises the link between the actions taken in the fisheries sector and the health of ocean ecosystems, climate change impacts, and fisheries benefits. This calls for stakeholders in Ghana's fisheries sector to recognise the link between women's voice in fisheries resource management and sustainable fisheries through responsible actions. It is a call to amplify the Say No to Bad Fish " chant of the National Fish Processors and Traders Association (NAFTA), not only at the national executive level, but especially at the community level by removing gender barriers. Ghana's efforts at international levels such as adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Maputo Protocol; the National Gender Policy and the National Gender Mainstreaming Strategy for the Fisheries Sector at the national level will be fruitless if these actions do not flow down to the fishing communities, breaking the traditional gender barriers that continue to limit women participation in fisheries.

Looking into the Future

Women are pillars in Ghana's fisheries. Recognising their contributions by removing gender barriers, improving processing technologies and training, providing access to credit, and including them in fisheries governance is essential for strengthening Ghana's fisheries, enhancing and sustaining livelihoods, and improving household nutrition and national food security.

 Article submitted by Dr Miriam Yayra Ameworwor