BASS RULES WILL BE ENFORCED DESPITE COMMERCIAL PROTEST
Commercial fishing groups are now attempting, so far unsuccessfully, to find ways around the new rules to protect bass stocks from netting.
It follows formal confirmation by the Government that targeted netting for bass is no longer permissible and that enforcement action will be taken.
The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO) lobbied hard, but unsuccessfully, against the 2017 bass measures, which now only allow for bass to be targeted by commercial hook-andline boats or by recreational fishing. Those fishing with fixed nets may only land bass caught as ‘unavoidable bycatch’ while targeting other species.
The NFFO, as expected, had appealed to the Fisheries Minister George Eustice MP, claiming that there was now a “moral panic” over bass stocks and that this was in response to “huge political pressure from the well-organised and funded recreational angling lobby and their friends in Brussels and Westminster.”
It has objected, without success, to rules requiring only vessels with an existing record for catching bass to continue to target the bass fishery, but this too looks like it won’t get far. Recent guidance published by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) states: “The track record is linked to the vessel and remains with the vessel if it changes ownership. A track record cannot be transferred from one vessel to another. New vessels without a track record will not be eligible to fish for bass.”
It adds: “The catch limits shall not be transferable between vessels.”