Latest research has revealed a high presence of microplastics in local fish, with scientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Water Research Institute (CSIR-WRI) warning that consuming fish gills and guts has health risks.
The research by CSIR-WRI revealed that fish sourced from some coastal communities contained microplastics at levels dozens of times higher than international safety guidelines.
The international guideline, set by the European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture Products (EUMOFA), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), ranges from 112 to 3,078 particles a year.
Yet, Ghanaian children are estimated to be exposed to around 209 particles a year; consumers of farmed tilapia around 2,561 particles a year; and consumers of wild freshwater fish around 4,785 particles a year.
The findings of the six-year study, which started in 2021, were made public by a Senior Research Scientist at CSIR-WRI, Dr Pennante Naa Ayikailey Bruce-Vanderpuije, last Thursday at the closing session of this year’s mid-year review workshop by the institute.
Dr Bruce-Vanderpuije said the situation was worrying because plastic pollution was depleting Ghana’s fishing economy while microplastics were killing fingerlings — juvenile fish — and now account for up to 20 per cent of net catch volume in some areas, cutting directly into the incomes of fishers along the coast.
“Along the coast, the numbers climb far higher still: about 31,238 particles a year in James Town (Accra), 75,819 in Labadi, and 81,257 in Teshie, dozens of times above any international benchmark,” she said.
This is against the backdrop of the fact that fish remains a cornerstone of Ghana’s nutrition, supplying up to 80 per cent of animal protein intake.
Triggers
The research attributed the higher presence to agricultural sources; anti-fouling paint (APV) on fishing boats and road markings; polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from plumbing materials and cage infrastructure; and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET).
In the Volta Basin, about 45 per cent of plastic pollution came from boats, cages, and aquaculture operations, while 50 per cent of the plastics along the coast came from urban runoff and sewage.
For marine fish specifically, PVC accounted for 79.4 per cent of the microplastics found, coastal and urban sewage for 50 per cent, APV for 7.26 per cent, and rubber for 2.43 per cent.
Tracing the flow from upstream to downstream of the Volta Basin, Asikuma, where cage farming dominates, had the fish with the highest presence of microplastics, followed by Kpong and Sogakope.
“At the upper sites, the river was very broad, and the microplastics tended to float on the surface of the water, and the fish consume it.
But if you move further to the Sogakope site, the flow discharge was very high, so it flushes out the microplastics into the ocean.”
On the beaches, 80-93 per cent of the plastic found was land-based in origin, arriving through drains, markets, and households. Dr Bruce-Vanderpuije noted that awareness was not the missing link: a survey found 85 per cent of respondents in coastal communities understood the risks of plastic pollution, and 78 per cent were willing to help address it.
What was missing, she said, was reliable infrastructure- bins and collection systems- to translate that willingness into action.
“We are using plastics all over; water bottles, takeaway packs, buckets, slippers, and all these end up on land and transported into the sea, rivers, lakes and estuaries.
The manufacturers are not collecting them after use, and we do not have an efficient system to collect and manage them well,” she said.
Consequences
Dr Bruce-Vanderpuije explained that the evidence so far had shown proof of exposure, not yet proof of harm, and that “that gap is precisely why action is needed now under the precautionary principle, rather than waiting for definitive proof of disease”.
She said the increasing presence of microplastics in water bodies was nightmarish because those particles posed serious health and environmental consequences to humans.
“These microplastics are very small in size (up to five millimetres), and they have surfaces that can absorb contaminants that are toxic in nature.
So, if you consume these microplastics in fish with the heavy contaminants, they tend to leach the microplastics into our bloodstream, milk, our system, urine, and sometimes even transferring it into our children,” she said.
Dr Bruce-Vanderpuije explained that while the cage infrastructure released the microplastics into the basin, the fish consumed them, and humans in turn consumed them into their systems, “it becomes a chain reaction”.
She said the risk was amplified for small fish species that were eaten whole, or where the head, gut, and all were consumed, which accounted for 69 per cent of the plastic load found in the fish studied, a dietary pattern especially common among children and low-income households.
She added that research had also suggested that microplastics exposure might suppress gut immune function, cause lung inflammation, trigger oxidative stress, disrupt hormones, damage the liver and kidneys, and contribute to bioaccumulation with an associated cancer risk, though none of those effects had yet been directly proven in a Ghana-specific study.
No fears
Despite the disturbing picture, Dr Bruce-Vanderpuije said there was no need for people to panic, but that the public should rather wake up and work collectively to tackle the plastic pollution menace.
She said since the contamination was concentrated in the gills and guts rather than the fillet, anyone who discarded them before cooking is already substantially reducing their exposure.
“This is not about avoiding fish; it is about protecting the water fish live in, because right now, plastic is costing our fishers up to 20 per cent of their catch, and costing all of us in ways we are only beginning to understand,” she said.
Dr Bruce-Vanderpuije stressed the need for urgent steps to restrict the influx of plastics into water bodies to prevent fish contamination.
“My position is clear: protect the fish, do not restrict consumption.
The goal of this research is not to discourage Ghanaians from eating fish; it is to expose a pollution problem that threatens both public health and the fishing economy, so we can fix the source.”
“We should not abandon aquaculture altogether, but we can think of using alternatives like bamboo sticks in creating the cages rather than PVC pipes, which can fragment into pieces and release microplastics.
We need to identify sustainable infrastructure for the aquaculture system,” she said.
Recommendation
The study’s recommendations echo a policy push already taking shape nationally, associated with the late Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, who died earlier this year.
He had championed a mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework- still being finalised- requiring plastic producers and importers to help fund the collection and recycling of packaging they put on the market, as part of a broader circular economy roadmap for Ghana.
Following his death, the Environmental Protection Authority has proposed naming the forthcoming plastics legislation in his honour.
That legislation is expected to reinforce a phased, government-led ban on polystyrene (Styrofoam) food packaging, a major contributor to plastic along Ghana’s coastline, taking effect gradually from January 2027.
Complementing this, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly is moving to make waste separation at source mandatory under revised sanitation bye-laws, requiring households and workplaces to segregate plastics, organics, and other categories rather than combining them before collection- since waste that arrives already mixed is far harder, and costlier, to sort and recycle.
Dr Bruce-Vanderpuije further called for: a policy restricting the worst single-use plastic items; a deposit-refund system, under which consumers pay a small deposit on packaging that is refunded when returned, to boost collection rates; investment in viable alternatives to plastic packaging; and a Circular Plastics Fund jointly resourced by the Environmental Protection Authority, the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, and the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority.
She added that it was important to map pollution sources and intercept leaks at key chokepoints before they reached the water.
“There is a need to phase these measures gradually, starting with a ban on free plastic bags,” she added.
“Ultimately, this means shifting money and policy focus from clean-up to prevention.
The right question is not how much plastic we’ve cleaned up; it is how much plastic we have kept out in the first place,” she stressed.
