Bass angling on RTE1

Here is a release on FIF website:



Fitzwilliam Business Centre

26/27 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin 2, Ireland.

Telephone 01 637 3937 Fax 01 662 0635 Email info@fif.ie

PRESS RELEASE

“A National Scandal”
FIF calls for the Immediate Re-Opening of Sea Bass fishery

FIF has described the ban on a commercial fishery for Sea Bass for Irish commercial fishing vessels only as a
national scandal and is calling for the immediate re-opening of the fishery. It is a cause of intense frustration
and anger for Irish fishermen particularly as other Member States eg UK and France fishing the same fishing
grounds can catch and land sea bass into to Irish ports whereas the Irish vessels are legally required to discard
it if they catch it. It is further exacerbated by the fact that Irish recreational fishermen are allowed to fish sea
bass with a defined bag limit.
Eibhlin O’Sullivan, Chair of the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) said: “This is a self-inflicted National scandal
that cannot this time be blamed on the EU. The impact of this unjustified ban is now “coming home to roost”
with the Commission proposing to introduce in the form of “non paper” published in June an EU Total
Allowable Catch (TAC) and individual Member States quotas for Sea Bass”. She added: “In the paper the
Commission sets out that they intend to allocate the quota to member states based on individual member
states track record for commercial landings between the years 2000 and 2010. From an Irish fishing industry
perspective this is a disaster as due to a decision of the then government in the mid 90s Ireland has banned
commercial fishing for Sea Bass and therefore will receive virtually no share of the TAC. This is totally
unacceptable and at this late stage we are calling on the Minister Coveney to immediate re-open this fishery to
Irish vessels"
FIF has requested that this fishery be re-opened for a number of years now and in 2009 a proposal was
submitted to the then Minister to allow for a fishery for Sea Bass 50km off the South East Coast of


Ireland which would not interfere with the recreational fishery and would allow further scientific data to be
gathered which would in time allow for the fishery to be fully opened. However, due to pressure from Industry
is now left to face the consequences that Ireland will receive no share of this TAC for species in Irish waters. A
further difficulty with a TAC and quotas being placed on Sea Bass is that this species will now come under the
proposal for a discard ban and how are Irish vessels supposed to adhere to the ban when they have no quota
whatsoever allowing them to land these species.

Ends


29th November, 2012.



Contact Details:

Eibhlin O’Sullivan, CHAIR, FIF and CEO, Irish South & West Fish Producers Organisation Ltd. - 086 2360001

Francis O’Donnell, CEO Irish Fish Producers Organisation - 087 9247344

Sean O’Donoghue, CEO Killybegs Fishermens Organisation - 087 4196535

I think that all clubs and fishermen in the country should write now to our minister for fisheries. If we let our voice be heard then that will make him examine the facts as they are and not those presented to him by the FIF.
His details are

Email:
simon.coveney@oir.ie

Address:
Simon Coveney TD,
Main St,
Carrigaline,
Co. Cork.

[Stan]

Dear Mr. Coveney,

Recently there have been representations by the Federation of Irish Fishermen, on Ear to the Ground, to open up our bass stocks to commercial fishing.

Eibhlin O Sullivan, Seamus O Flaherty and John Keating made a number of points in favour of this. They stated that bass were frequently caught in trawls when fishing for other species such as cod and whiting off shore. They stated that there were 2 distinct stocks of Irish bass, one offshore outside the 12 mile limit and the other localised inshore bass. They also stated that all other EU nationalities were allowed to land Irish bass.

There is strong evidence to contradict some of the above points.

In a previous post the Marine Institute with its two modern research vessels has only ever caught 60 bass offshore in the Celtic Sea in the last 15 years. Thus it would appear that the FIF statement that large amounts bass are regularly caught in Irish trawls is not true.

There is one stock of Irish bass. These are generally local populations that stay within a few miles of shore all year.

There are bass stocks a long distance off the SE coast of Ireland. These are not “Irish Bass” but are bass that tend to migrate between France and the UK. None of these fish arrive anywhere near our coast. These are the fish that other EU nationalities catch. They are not allowed fish for our local inshore Irish bass.

When fishermen targeted our local bass in the 1970’s &80’s they went very near the point of extinction. It is only now, many years later, that these stocks are beginning to recover.

With this recovery we have UK, French, Dutch etc anglers coming to our shore every year. Obviously while they are here they spend a lot of money. No doubt this is worth more to our economy than boxes of bass landed by commercial fishermen. As our stocks improve more and more anglers will arrive to our shore with the obvious increase in money pouring into the economy. It is better to have a long-term gain for the country than to have a few fishermen make short-term gain.

At the moment there is some poaching of bass all around the coast. It would appear that our fisheries officers are not able to curtail this very much. The only thing that stops the poachers landing more bass is the difficulty in selling them. Should the landing of “Irish bass” be legalised this will open up a gateway for the sale of bass caught locally. There is no way that this can be stopped.

I agree that the dumping of any fish that is a bycatch is wrong. It seems to be a difficult matter to get around. Nobody seems to be able to come up with another solution to protecting species. However, it is imperative that all species are given some way of avoiding extinction. Irish bass are not a bycatch of the trawlers.

The fact that Irish fishermen cannot land bass here does seem to be working. The consequences of allowing them to land bass as a “bycatch” would be catastrophic.

I urge you to bear these facts in mind before opening up bass fishing to commercial fishermen again.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,



Stan Ryan

(Chairman Borough SAC)

Last edited by Stan on Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Stan, that's good. What would be better though is if you ask him a question. Any old question at all that forces them into thinking about replying to you, maybe doing a bit of research to find your answer, maybe have to ask a civil servant or two about it......

Does everyone think these letters actually get read by the minister, or anyone for that matter? I think its time for other action aswell as the letter writing and emails . We've hardly had a minutes peace the last few years because of the continued pressure from the FIF . The letters have kept the fight up but they don't seem to be putting the issue to bed.

Guys, The FIF proposal is full of inacuracies and downright lies. First of all there will be no TAC for bass. The quota proposal was abandoned over a month ago. In fact it was never going to happen. The "Non paper" mentioned was purely a kite flying excercise and seemed to only be taken seriously in Ireland where the commercial sector and the Department saw it as a chance to finally get rid of our "troublesome" bass laws. As regards the discard ban, the Irish commercial sector were the first ones to oppose it. Now they are trying to use it to get our bass laws changed. They know, just as I do that a full discard ban is not going to happen. They just do not want the public to know this!
For those of you that believe the suggestion that at least on occasions large quantaties of bass are caught offshore the facts do not back this up. These facts show that other countries are not catching numbers of bass there. You can chose to believe what you are told by a few Irish skippers who have a lot to gain by suggesting that they caught big hauls of bass or you can believe all the catch data and years of scientific reseasch. It's up to you. The problem is that if we as anglers concede that "our boys" are catching bass there what hope is there that our Minister will bother to chech the data or scientific research. For what it's worth EU boats tend to over report their bass catches. Because bass are a non quota fish, some skippers log other quota species as bass. The Stevensons case in Newquay Cornwall for illegal landings of quota fish proved this.
Our big problem is that the minister will be influenced by this. He does not have the time to look into the details and the people who advise him are much to close to the commercial sector to contradict anything they say.
Its probably true that the minister rarely sees the letters we write but his department see them. I was told from inside the department that the last time we had a serious letter writing campaign it changed the ministers mind because his civil servants told him what was happening. The more noise we make, the better chance we have of influencing his decision. It only takes a few miniutes to send a letter or email. If you enjoy catching bass then take the time. You have nothing to loose and lots to gain.

Emails do work. On the last occasion when rumour had it that a "trial box" was to be opened in the Kinsale area to test the commercial fishing of bass people on this website to write to Simon Coveney. I know for a fact that he received thousands of emails. He decided that the bass fishery would not be opened again because the angling lobby was so strong. So let us all send an email. I am going to write a sample that we can all send to him. All you have to do is copy and paste it.
Anybody that is is a club please try to get every member to do the same. You might get family members to also do so.

This will take just a minute .

If we believe that sending an email is a a waste of time then our opinion will not be heard the the fishermen will win.

Emails do work. On the last occasion when rumour had it that a "trial box" was to be opened in the Kinsale area to test the commercial fishing of Bass people on this website to write to Simon Coveney. I know for a fact that he received thousands of emails. He decided that the Bass fishery would not be opened again because the angling lobby was so strong. So let us all send an email. I am going to write a sample that we can all send to him. All you have to do is copy and paste it.
Anybody that is is a club please try to get every member to do the same. You might get family members to also do so.

This will take just a minute .

If we believe that sending an email is a a waste of time then our opinion will not be heard the the fishermen will win.

Stan, you are spot on but could I recommend that where possible people send a letter. The department are legally obliged to respond to every letter but do not have to respond to emails so letters are more likely to get their attention. If people can not send a letter then by all means send an email. All you need to say is how important bass are to you and that the law should not be changed.
His address is;
Minister Simon Coveney,
Department of Agriculture, Marine & Food,
Agriculture House,
Kildare Street,
Dublin 2.
Telephone: 01-6763925
Don't bother with the Christmas card for the mother-in-law and use the stamp on a Christmas card to the Minister instead!! If you put "for addressee only" then civil servants are supposed to pass it on to him.
The best present he could give in return is to leave our bass alone.

Below is a suggested email that everybody could send to Simon Coveney. All you have to do is to cut and paste. I know some will question the idea of sending the same email from everyone. I think that the most important point is that we send an email to the minister just to make him aware that we oppose The FIF proposal . If anybody has any other suggestions then that is great.


Dear Mr. Coveney,

The Federation of Irish Fishermen believes that bass fishing should now be opened up to them.
As an angler I believe that this would be a catastrophic measure.

While they claim that they would only fish for bass 50km offshore there is simply no way to police this.
The current ban on landing bass means that there is less poaching of the species as it is harder to sell them.
If commercial fishermen are allowed to land bass then poachers will have no problem doing likewise. They will target our local populations and there can be no doubt that in just a few years the recovery of this species will be wiped out. We saw bass fished to the point of extinction in the 70’s & 80’s and so the proof is there.

We have large numbers of anglers travelling from foreign countries to our shore to catch this wonderful species. No doubt this is worth a large amount of money to our economy. I am quite sure that the value of a bass caught by an angler far exceeds that of a bass caught in a trawl or poached in a gillnet.

I would ask you at this stage to refrain from bending to pressure from the FIF to allow them access to bass. It is important to bear in mind the long-term gain for many rather than the short-term gain to few.

Regards,

Guys, The FIF proposal is full of inacuracies and downright lies. First of all there will be no TAC for Bass. The quota proposal was abandoned over a month ago. In fact it was never going to happen. The "Non paper" mentioned was purely a kite flying excercise and seemed to only be taken seriously in Ireland where the commercial sector and the Department saw it as a chance to finally get rid of our "troublesome" Bass laws. As regards the discard ban, the Irish commercial sector were the first ones to oppose it. Now they are trying to use it to get our Bass laws changed. They know, just as I do that a full discard ban is not going to happen. They just do not want the public to know this!
For those of you that believe the suggestion that at least on occasions large quantaties of Bass are caught offshore the facts do not back this up. These facts show that other countries are not catching numbers of Bass there. You can chose to believe what you are told by a few Irish skippers who have a lot to gain by suggesting that they caught big hauls of Bass or you can believe all the catch data and years of scientific reseasch. It's up to you. The problem is that if we as anglers concede that "our boys" are catching Bass there what hope is there that our Minister will bother to chech the data or scientific research. For what it's worth EU boats tend to over report their Bass catches. Because Bass are a non quota fish, some skippers log other quota species as Bass. The Stevensons case in Newquay Cornwall for illegal landings of quota fish proved this.
Our big problem is that the minister will be influenced by this. He does not have the time to look into the details and the people who advise him are much to close to the commercial sector to contradict anything they say.
Its probably true that the minister rarely sees the letters we write but his department see them. I was told from inside the department that the last time we had a serious letter writing campaign it changed the ministers mind because his civil servants told him what was happening. The more noise we make, the better chance we have of influencing his decision. It only takes a few miniutes to send a letter or email. If you enjoy catching Bass then take the time. You have nothing to loose and lots to gain.

I'd imagine they do make a difference. Politicians care about votes and in terms of numbers there must be a lot more anglers than people working in the fishing industry?

Dear Mr Coveney,

As a lifelong Fine Gael voter and constituent of Junior Minister Fergus O’Dowd but more importantly Chairperson Of Dundalk and District Sea Anglers. I would urge you to keep the current Bass protection legislation in place.
I represent a club of 41 senior members and 11 junior members which hold monthly beach fishing competitions along the Co Louth Coast. As we live so far north and because of persistent poaching,Bass are not too often caught in our competitions. When we do catch one,it is very special and inspiring for our members.
However a group of us regularly make trips to Cork harbour to fish for Bass. We stay in either stay in the Bellavista Guesthouse or the Commodore Hotel. We eat and drink plenty and even find time to catch and return the odd Bass.
I was a commercial fisherman for 13 years and I know that if the commercial sector is allowed to exploit spawning schools of Bass offshore and land them in Irish ports it will be impossible to protect our inshore stocks(possibly the same stock anyway).
I have witnessed the drastic decline in Cod, Whiting and Place stocks in my local area over the past 30 years and also the local extinction of Spurdogs and Rays during the ‘80’s. I cannot bear to think that our slow growing and recovering Bass stocks may once again be subject to commercial fishing pressure which will inevitably lead to their rapid decline.
As you know sea angling provides huge benefits both socially and financially to Irish society. Please do not add our beloved Irish Bass to the long list of other species that have been fished to the verge of extinction.

Regards

Mark Heffernan


I sent the above e-mail to Simon and will post similar to him.

Got a reply to my email this morning from ministers office .

Writing a letter is definitely more effective than sending an email.
Here is the letter I am about to put in the post:

Minister Simon Coveney TD.
Department of Agriculture, Marine & Food,
Agriculture House,
Kildare Street,
Dublin 2.

Dear Minister,
It has come to my attention that the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) have renewed their campaign to lobby the Government to allow the retention and landing of Sea Bass caught in Irish offshore waters. Part of their argument is based on misleading and false information. They claim that fishing vessels from other EU member states are catching and landing large numbers of bass from Irish offshore waters outside of the 12 mile limit. There is no evidence that this is happening. The FIF have claimed that there are two distinct Irish bass populations; one that inhabits shallow inshore waters and a second that lives in deeper water. I believe that this is a false and misleading claim. For example, the Marine Institute using two modern research vessels has only caught 60 bass offshore in the Celtic Sea in the last 15 years. All the current data indicates that there is a single Irish bass population which is essentially an inshore species.

Any relaxation in the bass laws would be disastrous for the bass stocks. After twenty years of protection Irish bass are gradually making a recovery. To permit commercial fishing for bass again would undo all the benefits of the last twenty years of protection in a very short space of time. If the laws were changed to allow commercial fishing for bass in our offshore waters it would facilitate the landing of bass illegally caught in shallow inshore waters and would without question lead to the decimation of the population in a very short period of time for very limited sort term gain.

Irish bass provide a very valuable recreational resource. Our inshore bass fisheries are the envy of European anglers. The economic benefits of angling tourism, not to mention the spending by Irish anglers, would far out strip the short term limited benefit to the national economy of opening up our waters to commercial bass fishing.

The potential of bass as a tourism resource is far from been fully realized and could generate revenues for the State far in excess of the limited short term gain for a few commercial fishermen. The vast majority of visiting foreign bass anglers also practice catch and release so they are not harming the bass stocks.

The expenditure by overseas anglers visiting our shores is substantial. They are making a significant contribution to the local economy, staying in local guesthouses or hotels, eating in local restaurants and bars. They will also purchase bait locally and are likely to purchase tackle in local angling shops. They may utilize the services of local bass guides or take charter boat trips.

If more resources are devoted to the prevention of illegal netting and the promotion of bass angling tourism, bass as a sports fish can make a very valuable contribution to our economy as more overseas anglers visit our shores. I urge you to maintain the present ban on commercial bass fishing and devote more resources to bass protection.

Yours sincerely,

Francis X. Murphy, B.Sc., Ph.D.

Just so we can all sing of the same hymn sheet here, when you say the bass were taken offshore you mean outside the 12 mile limit?

Yes

They claim that fishing vessels from other EU member states are catching and landing large numbers of Bass from Irish offshore waters outside of the 12 mile limit.

Hi guys.

I am consistently sending letters and e-mails to whoever might have even the slightest influence over a decision on our bass laws.

I am happy to see the interest in this thread.

Keep up the good work!

John D.

The lads in my club all got a reply from Simon Coveney's secretary .

Keep up the pressure Numbers will win out.

What was said to them does he agree with the commercial ban.

What was said to them does he agree with the commercial ban.

From this time last year:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=37048&hilit=Coveney

The reality is that this is all a bit of a witch hunt! The French pair trawlers on occasion probably do fish for Bass in the Smalls area.

The norm is that Bass are an extremly rare catch in a bottom trawl, I spent many years as a commercial fisherman and apart from one freak shot of Bass I never came across them in my catches. There may be a possibility that a small amount of them are turning up in bottom trawls off the SE coast more frequently than in the past, however , I suspect this is only nominal and that the real agenda is that the fishermen in the SE want to target Bass with pelagic pair trawling as an alternative to bottom trawling when quotas are tight.
So do not get worried about huge amounts of Irish Bass getting caught offshore, it aint happening!The arguement used on 'Ear to the ground' that the French are fishing for them so why can't we? Yes, the French are fishing for them, but they are taking them to the SW of England/Wales and the English Channel and not in our waters!

I would hazard a guess that more Bass are taken illegally by punts fishing along the beaches of the south and SE coast than are caught as a bycatch on any Irish trawler.

The story has been manipulated to seek a way back to reopening the Irish Bass fishery.

If it is reopened it will last for a short number of seasons and then collapse, that is what happened the Spurdog Fisherie in the 1980s, which never recovered.