By Caleb AhinakwahFive months after Ghana declared its first protected ocean zone, there are no marked boundaries, operational patrols or government funding – and fishermen say they do not know where the protected area begins or ends.Ghana’s first marine protected area is missing from one of the world’s leading open-access systems for monitoring fishing activity at sea.The 703.86 sq km Greater Cape Three Points Marine Protected Area, declared by Ghana on 14 April 2026, does not currently appear as a separately operationalised boundary on Global Fishing Watch, a platform used to visualise and analyse vessel activity.That means activity cannot be isolated specifically within the protected area using the platform.The absence does not establish that fishing vessels have entered the protected area. Rather, it reflects a more fundamental problem: five months after Ghana declared the MPA, the zone has not yet been fully operationalised on the ground or in the digital systems that can help authorities and researchers monitor activity within it.Why it mattersThe Greater Cape Three Points area stretches along Ghana’s Western coastline in the Ahanta West Municipality, an area where fishing, coastal ecosystems and tourism are closely intertwined.The 703.86 sq km marine protected area encompasses waters associated with 21 coastal communities, including Cape Three Points, Akwidaa, Princess Town, Busua, Butre and the Dixcove communities.The area is considered ecologically significant, with rocky reefs, mangrove ecosystems, coastal wetlands and fish breeding and nursery grounds that support both marine biodiversity and the livelihoods of coastal communities. Research in the area has also involved fishers and residents in mapping important ecosystems and identifying pressures affecting them.The stakes for getting this right are significant. Ghana’s marine fisheries have been under severe pressure for decades. Government data from the Fisheries Scientific Survey Division show that total fish landings declined by 73% between the highest recorded level in 1992 and 2025. The country now imports more than 79,000 tonnes of fish annually because domestic catches can no longer meet demand.A well-enforced marine protected area is designed to reverse that trajectory. By restricting destructive fishing activity in ecologically critical zones, particularly spawning grounds and nursery habitats, MPAs give fish populations space to recover and rebuild. As stocks inside the protected zone increase, fish spill over into adjacent waters where artisanal fishermen can catch them. For Ghana’s coastal communities, where fishing is not a lifestyle choice but the primary source of food and income, that spillover effect is not an abstraction. It is the difference between a viable livelihood and a collapsing one.The Greater Cape Three Points MPA adopts a mixed-use co-management model that does not ban fishing outright. Regulated, sustainable artisanal fishing is permitted within the zone, with restrictions applied specifically to industrial gear and designated no-take areas once zonation is complete. The model was designed to protect critical marine habitats while safeguarding the livelihoods of the 21 coastal communities whose daily lives depend on the sea.For the communities, however, the sea is not simply a conservation area. It is a source of food, income and employment for fishermen, fish processors and traders. That is why the success of the MPA depends not only on drawing a boundary on a map, but on making its rules and zones clear to the people who use the waters every day.Ghana formally declared the Greater Cape Three Points MPA on 14 April 2026, making it the country’s first marine protected area. The declaration was intended to protect critical marine habitats, help depleted fish stocks recover, and strengthen the resilience and livelihoods of coastal communities.The gap between that declaration and conditions on the ground is visible across multiple communities within the zone.Within the Greater Cape Three Points enclave, the disconnect between the declaration and conditions on the ground is visible at community level. In Cape Three Points, one of the 21 communities that fall within the MPA zone, the chief fisherman responsible for nearly a thousand fishermen says he still does not know where the protected area’s boundaries lie.Nana Thomas Ade, the community’s chief fisherman, oversees nearly 1,000 fishermen in the area. Yet he says he still does not know where the protected area’s boundaries lie.“We are just hearing that they are coming to do a project in Cape Three Points, but we, the fishermen in the town, don’t know where they will do it,” he told Myjoyonline during a field visit to a community in the Western Region in August.Nana Thomas Ade, chief fisherman at Cape Three Points on the [right], and James Kwesie, secretary to the chief fisherman, at the community in Ghana’s Western Region on the [left]. Fishermen say they have yet to be shown clear boundaries for the newly declared marine protected area. At Busua, one of the other communities within the MPA zone, Kweku Arhin, a fisherman with more than two decades on the water, said he had heard about the new protected area and that it would help the fish return. What he had not been told was where the boundaries were.“They say there is a boundary,” he said. “But where is it?”In Atuabo, Kwame Badu Asare, who has been fishing since the age of seventeen, said he had no quarrel with the idea of protecting part of the sea. But he said fishermen needed clear boundaries and clear rules communicated before enforcement began.“If there is somewhere we cannot go, mark it,” he said. “If there is somewhere we can fish, tell us. Don’t wait until somebody is arrested before explaining the rules.”Five months after its declaration, government documents obtained under Ghana’s Right to Information Act show that the legal, operational and financial architecture needed to make the MPA functional has not been put in place. The management plan that will govern fishing activity within the zone is not expected to be operational until 2027. The internal fishing zones have not been demarcated at sea. Patrol operations have not begun. And the government has not allocated any dedicated domestic funding for implementation, according to the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture’s RTI responseIts management plan is not expected to be operational until 2027. Internal fishing zones have not been demarcated at sea. Patrols have not begun, and the government has not allocated dedicated domestic funding for implementation, according to the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture’s RTI response.Stephen Kankam of Hen Mpoano, the conservation organisation involved in developing the MPA, said implementation had not yet started.“We have not initiated implementation of the MPA,” he said. “We envisage implementation to begin in January 2027.”‘Physically, the MPA boundaries have not been demarcated’The Greater Cape Three Points MPA was created following years of stakeholder consultations and Cabinet approval in October 2025.Its creation was presented as a landmark moment for marine conservation in Ghana. But the protected area remains largely a legal designation rather than an operational one.The outer boundary has been mapped, but the internal zones that will determine where fishing is prohibited or restricted have not been marked on the water.“Physically, the MPA boundaries have not been demarcated,” Kankam said. “Zonation and demarcation is an ongoing process.”Emmanuel Ogo, a member of the MPA Management Executive Committee, said the lack of zonation meant patrol operations could not yet begin.“Because of the rough sea, they haven’t done any zonation yet so operations haven’t started,” he said. “Once the zonation is done the patrols will begin.”The original plan called for three patrol boats at Ejan, Cape Three Points and Ampatano.Only one is currently available, according to Kankam, and it is sitting at Cape Three Points rather than being deployed.One of the three patrol boats sitting at Cape 3 points“The boats will only be deployed to undertake patrol when we have all these things planned out, and rules and responsibilities are fully clarified,” he said.There have also been problems with the physical markers intended to indicate the protected area.James Kwesie, secretary to the chief fisherman, said large anchors were placed offshore and fishermen were told they marked the area where the project would operate.“They brought big anchors at the far side of the sea and told us that is the side they will do the work,” he said.“We went there to check. They came to take the anchors from there. Since then they haven’t returned.”The coastline at Cape Three Points, one of the communities within Ghana’s first marine protected area.A protected area that cannot yet be separately monitoredThe absence of the MPA from Global Fishing Watch does not mean vessels have been shown to be fishing illegally inside the protected zone.But it means the platform cannot currently be used to distinguish fishing activity inside the 703.86 sq km area from activity elsewhere in Ghana’s Exclusive Economic Zone.Data reviewed for this investigation show that 72 vessels recorded 17,336 hours of fishing activity in Ghana’s EEZ between 1 May and 1 September 2026.Eighteen vessels classified as trawlers accounted for 8,192 hours.Fishing activity recorded in Ghana’s EEZ by gear type, 1 May–1 September 2026.One Chinese-flagged vessel, Mengxin5, recorded 1,052 hours.Other vessels in the dataset included two listed as unknown, with a combined 87 hours, and the Belize-flagged Mamati Orhan, which recorded 142 hours with an inconclusive gear classification.Top 10 vessels by recorded fishing hours in Ghana’s EEZ, 1 May–1 September 2026.The Global Fishing Watch data do not establish that these vessels operated inside the Greater Cape Three Points MPA. Because the MPA has not been operationalised as a separate spatial boundary in the platform, vessel activity within the protected area cannot currently be isolated. Individual vessel classifications and activity require further technical verification.Vessel activity by flag in Ghana’s EEZ, 1 May–1 September 2026.The inability to separately monitor the protected area is significant because surveillance is central to making marine protection effective.A technical verification with Global Fishing Watch is still required to confirm the precise status of the MPA boundary in the platform and the interpretation of individual vessel records.Fishermen are waiting for the boundariesThe uncertainty about MPA boundaries is consistent across communities within the zone, not limited to any single location.In Busua, Mavis Owusu, a fish processor and trader who has operated at the beach for years, said the impact of poor catches extended well beyond the fishermen themselves.“People hear ‘marine protected area’ and they think only about the sea,” she said. “For us, the sea enters the house.”Owusu said a poor catch did not end with a fisherman returning home empty-handed. It moved down the beach with him. The woman who smoked the fish earned less. The trader bought less. The carrier carried less. The family that depended on the day’s sales took home less.Nana Yaw Mensah, a younger fisherman in Busua, said his concern was not the present situation but what would happen when enforcement eventually arrived without sufficient prior communication.“My worry is that one day they will come with a patrol boat and say, ‘You have entered the protected area,'” he said. “And they will say they told us.”In Atuabo, Adwoa Serwaa Baah, a fish processor who buys from fishermen and sells to traders, said she had noticed changes in the volume of fish available long before the MPA was declared.“There are days when I sit here and wait for the fish,” she said. “Sometimes the fishermen come back and before they even reach the shore, we already know there will be trouble.”Her concern was not simply whether fishing would be restricted. It was what would happen to everyone whose livelihoods depended on what the fishermen brought home.“If the fisherman doesn’t catch, what will I buy?” she said. “If I don’t buy, what will I smoke? If I don’t smoke, what will I sell?”Felicia Armah, another fish trader in Atuabo, said the economic chain extended further than most people recognised.“People think the women only come here to buy and sell,” she said. “They don’t see the debt.”She explained that women often bought fish on credit, paid for processing and transport, then waited to recover their money after the fish had been sold. “If the fish is not there, the whole calculation breaks,” she said.Community willingness to cooperateDespite the frustrations over the pace of implementation, interviews across three communities within the MPA zone found broad willingness among fishermen and fish processors to cooperate with the government if it delivers on its commitments.In Busua, Kweku Arhin said his objection was not to the MPA itself but to the absence of clear communication about where the rules applied. “I am not against protecting the fish,” he said. “If they protect the breeding grounds and the fish increase, who will complain? But show us where to stop.”In Atuabo, Kwame Badu Asare expressed the same conditional support. “What we want is fish,” he said. “If protecting part of the sea will bring the fish back, then protect it. But don’t protect it only with words.”At Cape Three Points, James Kwesie said his confidence in the government’s intentions had led him to take a personal financial risk. “Even me I have gone to bring a boat to the community because I know the government is really serious about the MPA,” he said. He added, however, that meaningful engagement was still missing. “The government and the MPA members too must have a meeting with us and discuss what the project is about. They haven’t done that yet.”Nana Thomas Ade, the chief fisherman, said the potential benefits of a functioning MPA were clear to him. “If God helps and they complete the MPA, it will definitely benefit us,” he said. “It will benefit the community and benefit Ghana.”The willingness is there. What the communities are waiting for is the government to meet them halfway with marked boundaries, clear rules, and the sustained engagement that turns a declaration into a working protected area.James Kwesie, secretary to the chief fisherman at Cape Three Points, says fishermen have repeatedly raised concerns about activity in the area. For Ade and other fishermen, the lack of information has left uncertainty over what the declaration means for their daily activities.The MPA was established following years of work involving government agencies, conservation organisations and coastal communities. But the people living closest to it are still waiting for the rules governing fishing to become operational.Illegal fishing continues during the transitionThe implementation gap comes as fishermen report continued illegal fishing practices around the area.Kwesie said canoes involved in saiko – the illegal transfer of fish between industrial trawlers and small-scale fishing canoes at sea – were operating in waters around the community shortly before the visit.“If you come here around 9, 10, 11, you will see some here,” he said.Kwesie said the community had repeatedly reported the illegal activity to authorities without result. The canoes involved were known to carry weapons, making direct confrontation dangerous.“We have addressed this issue all the time, but they are not minding us,” he said. “With them they have a lot of weapons so we can’t go and fight with them.”Saiko is prohibited under Ghana’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Act, 2025.Kankam acknowledged that illegal activity could continue while the enforcement structures were being established.“Perhaps we just have to give ourselves that window of time,” he said.Fishing canoes operating off Cape Three Points. Community members say illegal fishing activity continues in waters around the area.Donor money, not government fundingThe government’s RTI response reveals another weakness in the new protected area: there is currently no dedicated government budget for implementation.Instead, direct operational costs are being supported by international donors including Bloomberg Philanthropies, Oceans 5, UK Aid, the Norwegian government and the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation.The funds are channelled through implementing organisations including Hen Mpoano and the Global Fisheries Resilience Action.Kankam said the arrangement could not continue indefinitely.“That is not sustainable,” he said. “I think we need long-term funding for the marine protected area.”He said the government was working on a Cabinet memorandum intended to secure domestic financing.The Fisheries Committee for the West and Central Gulf of Guinea is also providing more than $150,000 in surveillance and demarcation equipment, he said.But there is still no established long-term government funding mechanism for the MPA.The road into Cape Three Points adds another practical obstacle.The route from Agona to the community is in poor condition, according to residents and conservation officials. Kankam said it was essential for enforcement access and for the economic development expected to accompany the protected area.Kwesie said patrol boats had previously reached the area but turned back because of difficulties accessing the community.Ghana’s promise to protect 30% of its watersThe Greater Cape Three Points MPA is also being held up as the beginning of a much larger conservation effort.Ghana has committed to the global 30×30 target under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which calls for 30% of marine and coastal areas to be effectively conserved by 2030. According to Kankam, only 0.40% of Ghana’s Exclusive Economic Zone is currently protected.But Ghana does not yet have a year-by-year plan showing how it will reach 30%, he said.“We do not have any figures as a country that says by 2027 we will have an additional 0.6 percent,” Kankam said. “Perhaps in our context, 1 percent will be enough.”The challenge comes as Ghana’s fisheries face mounting pressure. Government data show that total fish landings fell by 73% between the highest recorded level in 1992 and 2025. Ghana now imports more than 79,000 tonnes of fish each year to supplement domestic production.For conservationists, the purpose of protecting marine areas is not simply to draw lines on maps. Protected zones are intended to give fish populations and marine habitats space to recover, while supporting the long-term livelihoods of coastal communities. But those benefits depend on the rules being understood, boundaries being clear, and violations being detected and punished.In Greater Cape Three Points, those systems are still being built.“Within the first year we have not been able to demonstrate any enforcement,” Kankam said. “We are still in the planning phase.”Across the 21 communities inside the zone, from Busua to Atuabo to Cape Three Points, fishermen and fish processors are asking the same question. Not whether the MPA is a good idea. But whether the government intends to make it real.Back in Cape Three Points, Ade remains unsure what the declaration means for the fishermen he represents. Asked whether he believes the MPA will eventually be enforced, he pauses.“Everything is on God.”This investigation was supported by a grant from the Earth Journalism Network (EJN) under its Global Accountability on 30×30 initiative, with funding from the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Oceans 5, and the Bloomberg Ocean Fund.