This is not bad news, I am not saying it is. However, to me the biggest problem came from drift netting once they located known Bass spawning areas with the ever more sophisticated equipment available. Most other times of the year Bass frequent rocky ares generally and escaped drift nets because it was difficult for them to operate around rocky areas. Because of this Bass did not do badly for a long time when other species were declining until the drift netters were able to locate big spawning shoals of bass in open sea.
So, as always I think protective areas around these spawning grounds will do a lot more good than just banning fixed nets and quotas for pleasure anglers.
As to the one a day and wanting to increase that, is it necessary, I don't know it as a fact but most shore anglers will be happy with one a day, well, I would. Is this mainly to accommodate the "Bass Holidays" where boats are chartered and Bass hot spots are fished were many bass can be caught on rod and line in a day. Again, can these do more harm than the average shore angler. maybe an increase in one a day limit for these boat anglers without going overboard might be acceptable.
However, I still think it will all be unsatisfactory in the long term until the spawning areas are protected.
Bass seem to have had a better year this year but one year is not enough to properly gauge this as the recent increase in Cod in about 5 areas out of 200+ is not a Cod revival.
And I still cannot help wondering, if the scientists got this Bass quota so wrong recently, after having years to get them right!. How often have they got them wrong in the past and will continue to do so in the future!
