Britain must do more to protect sea bass stocks, says the Angling Trust

This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Britain must do more to protect sea bass stocks, says the Angling Trust



http://www.fishingmagic.com/news_ev...t-sea-bass-stocks-says-the-angling-trust.html

I feel strongly in agreement, we do need to do more. I guess if most anglers agree, the question is what should we do?
Would it help to join the Angling Trust? I would do so if it would help.
I guess anglers should be able to protect fisheries if they were mobilised. There are huge numbers of anglers and the economy of bass sportfishing must be much bigger than the economy of bass commercial fishing. If bass are to be caught and sold they can come from fish farms instead.

As a complete novice and newbie to sea fishing (only ever caught one Sea Bass that was just above the minm. size and with the boat trip costing £45 an expensive dinner) if

"an annual figure of 541 tonnes is likely to be exceeded by the commercial sector in just a few weeks"

Then I fail to see exactly what effect:

A new minimum landing size of 50cms (compared to 42cms in the EU);
A maximum landing size of 60cms (to allow big breeders to survive);
A catch limit of one fish per angler.

are liable to have, six of us on the boat caught four Bass, one was too small to keep. My son went out on the high tide at the end of July and never caught a single Bass. The problem would not appear to be rod caught numbers.

Thanks for your comments chaps. Of course we need anglers to give practical support to our campaign to help recover bass stocks, and yes, that means getting behind organisations like the Angling Trust and BASS who are fighting on your behalf. Campaigning costs money and we can't do it on fresh air. Regarding the second point, if the scientists are telling us that only a limited bass harvest is now sustainable then surely it follows that we must welcome moves to restrict bass mortalities and to allow a greater proportion of mature bass to survive, breed and help replenish the stocks?