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Six vessels and 22 canoes have been arrested since October 2013 for infringing on the country�s fisheries law, the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (MOFAD), Mr Nayon Bilijo, has said. Additionally, 39 generators have been seized from fishermen who were caught fishing in the night. In a statement read on his behalf at the 2014 Joint Sector Review (JSR) of the Agricultural Sector yesterday, Mr Bilijo said the vessels and canoes were arrested by a fisheries enforcement unit comprising personnel of the Fisheries Commission, the Ghana Navy and Ghana Police Service. The three-day review is on the theme; �Increasing private sector participation in agricultural development � the role of technology adoption for productivity improvement�. To deal with the issue of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, Mr Bilijo said transponders had also been fixed on all tuna fishing vessels operating in the country�s waters. �The contract for fitting all industrial trawlers with transponders and hooking them onto the tracking device is underway and will be completed by the end of July 2014,� he said. IUU and chemical fishing Mr Bilijo further stated that safety and quality checks were being conducted on the fishes caught in Ghanaian waters, �to safeguard and ensure that our consumers eat safe fish.� Fish inspection test kits had been procured to undertake on the spot safety and quality checks at the beaches, he added. �The fish inspection units have been deployed to most landing sites from Aflao to Half Assini to randomly sample fish for levels of chemicals in the fish to be sold to the public. At the same time, appreciable quantity of the fish landed, which have traces of these chemicals, were not allowed onto the market.� He said with the continuous education of the public, subsequent tests showed that the incidence of chemicals had reduced. Among other steps yet to be implemented were administrative directives to be issued on the inspection of fish at landing sites and in markets, he stated. The Fisheries Minister said that the ministry was also collaborating with the Ghana Marine Police Unit to arrest, prosecute and sanction all offenders on chemical fish. Ghana has been identified by the European Union (EU) as a non-cooperative third country as a result of IUU fishing. As a result of this, tuna exports were banned from entering EU countries, which resulted in the loss of thousands of cedis for months. GMOs While stating that the controversy surrounding the country�s adoption of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) had still not been resolved, a representative of the Chairman of the Medium Term Agricultural Sector Investment Plan (METASIP) Steering Committee, Mr Offei Nkansah, said it was because the GMO foods had not been properly discussed. The Deputy Minister in charge of crops at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Dr Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, appealed to all stakeholders to �stop passing the buck�. The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Clement Kofi Humado, launched four sector documents � the revised National Seed Policy, the National Fertiliser Policy, the Agricultural Sector Annual Progress report for 2013 and Facts and Figures on the country�s agriculture.