Students will undertake a field and or laboratory research project in any aspect of fisheries science and present a thesis for examination. Students will also make at least two seminar presentations during the research and thesis preparation, as well as an oral defense of the thesis.
This is an advanced course that builds on the introductory course in climate change issues at the undergraduate level. It emphasises mitigation and adaptation measures for minimizing the impact of climate change in coastal communities. Students are guided to evaluate trends in the indicators of climate change and their possible effects on coastal communities identified and analysed. The course also guides students to assess the vulnerability of communities and their capacity for dealing with the effects of climate change. Students are engaged in developing skills and tools for communicating climate change issues. A short project on climate change issues will be undertaken by students and report submitted at the end of the course.
This course involves an analysis of basic and applied aspects of warm water fish nutrition. Areas covered include nutrient requirement and metabolism, nutrient sources, nutrient chemistry, diet formulation and ration. Practical work will consist of preparation, administering and evaluation of feed including live feed. Students will be introduced to the use of statistical packages for evaluating the quality of fish feeds.
Students will be required to study recently published research papers in various aspects of fisheries science, paying particular attention to the methodology, presentation of results and discussions. Seminars would be arranged at which such papers would be discussed.
Trends in global fisheries and the major international instruments for the management of ocean fisheries (e.g. UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, FAO Compliance Agreement, UN Fish Stocks Agreement, FAO code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, FAO International Plans of Action and World Summit for Sustainable Development) will be explained. Objectives and functions of some Regional fisheries bodies, e.g. CECAF, WACAF, ICCAT, ICES, CIFA, will be discussed. This course will involve extensive use of the internet to access information.
This course shall deal with organization of the fishing industry in Ghana, with emphasis on the essential features of inland, and coastal and marine fisheries. It will give an overview of the Fisheries Law of Ghana, and role of the sector ministry and other organizations in fisheries development and management. The role of gender in the fishery, fish storage and marketing shall be discussed.
Students will be introduced to the concept of a fish stock, and fishery and biological information necessary for assessment of fish stocks will be studied. The importance of studies on age structure of stocks, population growth and mortality parameters of fish stocks shall be highlighted. The course will also examine indices of over-fishing, and fisheries management techniques (i.e. conventional versus traditional methods), and expose students to the use of software for assessing fish stocks.
The course will provide a survey of fishing gears and fishing techniques employed in coastal and inland fisheries of Ghana and other countries with particular emphasis on their effects on the fisheries resources. Selectivity of fishing gears shall be determined.
This course will examine the feeding ecology of finfish and shellfish; methods for the determination of age and growth of finfish and shellfish shall be studied; the von Bertalanffy and Gompertz growth models shall be explained. Studies on the reproductive biology, recruitment and early life history of fish and shellfish shall be conducted. The course shall involve the use of statistical packages to analyze fisheries data.
Morphology, anatomy and zoogeography of marine and freshwater shellfishes of economic interest shall be studied. Classification and identification of local freshwater and marine shellfishes would be carried out using monographs and keys
