Biologist swaps nets for snails to save guitarfish
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- Dr. Issah Seidu founded AquaLife Conservancy in 2019 after discovering that 70% of guitarfish species were threatened with extinction and that the related sawfish had already vanished from Ghanaian waters.
- Giant African land snail farming generates up to 10,000 Ghanaian cedis a month — roughly 10 times the 750–1,000 cedis an artisanal fisher typically earns — making it a viable economic alternative for coastal communities.
- Seidu's team convinced about 200 fishers to stop or scale back guitarfish harvesting, and 43 of them have taken up snail farming full-time, a conversion rate that began after initial hostility from the fishing community.
- Guitarfish populations are being devastated by a shift from artisanal purse seiners to gill nets that indiscriminately catch marine megafauna, with fins then exported to Chinese traders as industrial foreign fleets deplete other species.
- The IUCN elevated Seidu to co-chair of its Africa shark specialist group in 2025, and the Whitley Fund for Nature presented him with an award by Princess Anne at the Royal Geographical Society last month.
- Seidu's long-term goal is establishing Ghana's first locally managed marine protected area along the country's 540km coastline, calling it "life, culture and survival for millions of people."
Why it matters: Seidu's model proves a specific point for conservation: a 10x income gap between snail farming and artisanal fishing converted 43 fishers voluntarily, without enforcement. With more than half of guitarfish species already critically endangered and sawfish extinct in Ghanaian waters, this template of pairing species protection with higher-paying livelihoods is now being elevated to IUCN's Africa shark specialist group — giving Seidu influence over regional policy for sharks, rays, and chimaeras across the continent.
