Three articles on Seabass and why the Angling Trust are not taking part in the Cefas angling survey.

Before December Council this is the NEF proposal for EU level and UK specifics on the bass fishery – Chris Williams & Griffin Carpenter New Economics Foundation An overview of the options open to decision makers. 

Save out Seabass – An appeal to all anglers from the Angling Trust

Please act now to to stop bass netting and get a fairer deal for sea anglers. Sign the petition and share on your Facebook page.The Angling Trust is pressing hard to secure a better outcome for threatened bass stocks at the crucial forthcoming meeting of EU fisheries ministers on December 12th. Across Northern Europe, sea bass stocks are in deep trouble because of commercial overfishing and the repeated failure of politicians and fishery managers to follow scientific advice and introduce the necessary conservation measures. The Angling Trust and Bass Anglers’ Sportfishing Society (B.A.S.S.) have pressed hard for a ban on bass netting and we fully support the EU Commission’s proposals for 2017 for a sustainable and well managed recreational and commercial hook and line only bass fishery. Click here for more information.

The NFFO view on bass

NFFO President, Tony Delahubty said: “Without an appropriate catch limit or viable bycatch allowance, as night follows day, this measure will result in thousands of bass discarded dead next year. The Commission just doesn’t seem to understand that bass will be caught as bycatch in gill nets, irrespective of what measures are adopted in December. This will not help to reduce fishing mortality on bass. But it will put the spotlight on discards and discard policy. And not in a good way. This is introducing regulatory generated discards at the same time the same is being phased out in other fisheries. It lacks consistency and it lacks sanity.”

“The measures that have been introduced in 2014, 2015 and 2016 have had a dramatic impact. Catches of bass have fallen dramatically. But rebuilding the biomass will take some time – it depends on some decent year classes coming through. This is a lesson that we learnt with North Sea cod. Steady rebuilding will get us there but avoiding discards should be a key part of the policy. Instead, the Commission has proposed a misguided and harmful measure – harmful to the fishermen who will have to discard a vitally important part of their catch and misguided because it will not affect fishing mortality one jot.” Click here to read more

Cefas angling survey not supported by Angling trust

The Angling Trust will not be supporting a government backed-project to collect catch data from recreational sea anglers over the course of 2017. Sea Angling 2017 has been commissioned by Cefas (the Centre for Environment Fisheries & Aquaculture Science) and will build on the results of similar data collection exercises carried out in 2012 and 2016. The project is designed to fulfil EU requirements for the UK to provide data on recreational catches for a number of species listed under the Common Fisheries Policy’s Control Regulation and Data Collection Framework. Anglers will be asked to use log books detailing their catches over the course of 2017.

Earlier this year the Angling Trust stated that its contribution to any future data collection exercise would be dependent on two factors:

a) Extensive improvements being made in the collection of accurate landings/fishing mortality data from all sources – not just recreational sea anglers;

b) Policy decisions being evidence-based and reflecting the social, environmental and economic impacts of all sectors in a balanced and proportionate way.

Click here to read more