ANOTHER POOR BASS DEAL
Do you ever get the feeling that sea anglers get the rough end of any deal? A bass bag limit of one fish a day when we wanted three looks like a bad result to me. It seems the UK Government negotiators didn’t get any support for an increase or, some might claim, didn’t try hard enough.
On December 19, the Council of the European Union announced that recreational anglers would, once more, be given a bag limit of one fish per day, but extended to seven months (April 1 to October 31). That’s a poor return for the efforts of our campaigners, such as the Angling Trust, Save Our Seabass, and the European Anglers Alliance (EAA), who pushed for three fish a day for seven months, as well as seeking restrictions on fixed netting to a percentage of their catches.
Based on “positive developments reflected in the scientific advice”, the commercial sector got increased allowances – 5.5 tonnes per vessel for the hook-and-line fishery, to 400kg for two months for trawlers, to 210kg for seine netters, and 1.4 tonnes per year for fixed gillnets.
Indeed, the European Anglers Alliance suspects that no Member State made any real effort at the meeting to push for a three-fish bag limit for anglers because all the focus was on keeping commercial fishers happy.
An EAA spokesman said: “We had requested a bag limit of three bass during the seven open months (April 1 to October 31, 2019). That didn’t happen. The commercial sector gets access to more bass.”
You’d think sustainable fishing would be at the top of the agenda, but it seems not. The Commission had proposed to increase the catches for the commercial hook-and-line fishery from five to seven tonnes, but the Member States decided to redistribute some of that proposed increase to trawlers, seines and fixed gillnets, leaving the hook-and-liners with an increase to 5.5 tonnes.
LONE VOICE
The Angling Trust sees the failure to get a bag limit of three or even two bass a day, rather than one, as disappointing: “The UK Government agreed such an increase would be proportionate, and pushed hard for an increase in the bag limit, but received no support from other EU countries, as well as opposition from the EU Commission, which, contrary to the scientific estimates, argued that two fish per day would lead to a doubling in the amount of bass removed by recreational fishing.
“Bass are beginning to recover after reaching critically low levels in 2014, and although the shoots of recovery are starting to be seen, last year’s measures were not as effective as hoped, and the EU Commission was very robust this year in making sure the recovery is built on, with limited additional targeted fishing in 2019.”
David Mitchell, the Angling Trust’s head of marine, added: “It looks like, once again, the UK was a lone voice sticking up for recreational fishing. However, as we know, in the EU process you can’t achieve anything on your own. We were astonished that the Commission assumed two bass per day would increase the number of bass taken recreationally by 100 per cent when Cefas evidence clearly indicated it would lead to only a 23 per cent increase.”
Pointing out that sea anglers, the most valuable economic stakeholders in the bass fishery, now have less than a 17 per cent share of the total catch, David Curtis, of Save Our Seabass, said: “So much for proportionate measures! And our Fisheries Minister and Defra have forced the EU Commission to drop their proposal, which would have stopped fixed netters illegally targeting bass – they should hang their heads in shame.”
While bass campaigners fight for the cause, some people might suggest it is our Government’s negotiators who should hang their heads in shame. We’ve been stuffed again. Cliff Brown, editor