TAKING BACK CONTROL
Find out why leading campaigner David Curtis reckons we could kick start a new golden age for bass fishing
There’s hope for a new golden age of UK bass fishing.
G E, S of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has taken an absolute bashing from the commercial fishing organisations over the Brexit fishing deal struck with the EU. But listening to him defend the agreement on BBC Radio Cornwall, he mentioned that we now have the power to make our own technical regulations on things like bass. While this is true, it remains the case that bass is a stock we share with the EU and so coordinated measures are likely to be more effective than the UK and the EU each doing their own thing. For example, it is Save Our Sea Bass’s ambition that we move away from managing bass mainly to deliver the commercial fishing objective of maximum yield, to managing bass to deliver for sea anglers and sustainable commercial fishermen: “More and Bigger Bass” to turbo-charge the quality and value of our bass fishery. However, it will be difficult to achieve this goal without having the EU on-board too. So, not only will we have to convince the Government that our suggested approach to managing the bass fishery makes sense, but also, we will have to ask the Government to put pressure on the EU to adopt this approach as well. This will not be easy because currently recreational fishing is not included in the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, so the EU will find the idea of managing fish other than for the commercial objective of Maximum Sustainable Yield a novel and alien concept. If the EU does not immediately agree, will our Government have the courage to keep bass fishing pressure low in the UK and persuade the EU to follow our lead, or will it fall into the trap of mirroring what the EU does, for fear that the UK will miss out?
STRONG MESSAGE
at will largely depend on us, sea anglers. We need to send a strong message to the Government that maximising the bass catch is a failed policy that will not deliver the bass fishery we want or the economic benefits that are possible. We should stress that catching fewer bass than the EU would not be a failure for the UK but instead would demonstrate the UK’s commitment to a high quality and more profitable bass fishery across Northern Europe. Look out for a campaign from Save Our Sea Bass on this subject in 2021 and please give it your full support. ere are things the UK can easily do on its own. BASS has been campaigning against netters unsustainably targeting bass as they migrate along the coast prior to heading to offshore spawning areas. The UK could introduce measures specifically to put a stop to this. We have suggested a percentage of catch restriction to stop the targeting, but it may also be possible to stamp out this unsustainable netting via spatio-temporal measures. e UK could provide more protection for juvenile bass. When the EU increased the bass Minimum Conservation Reference Size it failed to make a corresponding increase in the mesh size inshore netters are allowed to use – and we have seen the result of this with undersized bass being illegally landed and sold. The UK could make it illegal to land bass caught in a net with a mesh less than say 108mm – a net with a mesh of this size would catch very few undersized bass. It would have the added benefit of protecting juvenile mullet. In 2021, we need to get our voices heard to embolden the Government to deliver “More and Bigger Bass”. Now we have taken back control of the UK’s bass fishery, let’s make use of that control to start a new golden age for bass fishing.