Concerns for the Bass Population

Wild sea bass are declining so rapidly because of overfishing and poor levels of breeding success that catches should be slashed by more than 80 per cent, scientists have advised.

The fish, a popular choice in restaurants, has suffered such a dramatic decline in the English Channel, the Irish and Celtic seas and in the southern part of the North Sea that scientists are calling for urgent measures to protect it.

In 2013 they called for catches to be reduced by 36 per cent but the problem has intensified over the last 12 months and they are now urging an 80 per cent cut.

The problem is exacerbated by recreational anglers who are responsible for about a quarter of the total landings in the UK, France, Netherlands and Belgium.

Source - http://fish2fork.com/en_GB/news/news/se ... jo.twitter

Am I right in saying that there is no bag limit in the UK?..and that wild Bass can be sold in the UK?

Sadly yes you are correct there are no restrictions on what you can take in the UK . There is common sense but that I'm afraid is sadly lacking in a lot of areas of sea fishing in the UK .

You'd have to wonder how they estimate what's landed by anglers. Bad news all the same

It is bad news all round but I find it hard to think that 25% of bass landed are by recreational anglers or I'm a very poor angler which might be true . Since arriving on these shores the one thing that is glaringly obvious is how far in advance you guys are over the UK in the mindset of fish conservation and the future of the fish stocks . You only have to read into the fish fight campaign to see what a mess the UK and most of Europe have made of the fish stocks and it's not just bass . Bass have been made trendy by the restaurants by calling it a sea bass , what next sea mackerel . They made a mess of trying to trendy up pollock a few years ago by re-naming it Colin (WTF ) if the same idiot had tyres to call Bass Rupert then I don't think bass would be in this situation and even the likes of this Welshman might have caught a few over here . As for the bass population on Tuesday afternoon at roaches point I have a feeling they will all be safe as I'm fishing there ,

Based on a survey I did a couple of years ago on this forum The impact of recreational fishing is more significant than you would think.

Then that makes it more serious , easy ways to reduce the number of fish taken but getting everyone to stick to it that's the hard bit

there is a bigger angler populous in GB and a bigger take too, a size and bag limit is right way to go but would be hard to police

Policing it is the problem , I caught 32 bass this year in South Wales before moving over here , I kept 4 of them. Most others would of kept all and sold them to local restaurants to cover the cost of bait or to pay for a few beers . The trouble with the UK is as I've mentioned before they are years behind you guys in fish conservation . There are some fantastic anglers over there and some of them really care about the fish and the future but the majority will just take what ever they want without a care . If a limit was installed the majority in the UK would take no notice which is sad . The only saving grace is a lot of bass sold to restaurants and supermarkets are farmed fish which is keeping the price down , I if the price of bass goes up to what it has been in the past everyone with a rod and line or a net will be after them then they really will be in a lot of trouble .

Its sad reading Jim, but that only makes it all the more important to highlight the issue. Thanks for posting the link.

I've said it before: the unfortunate bass has been overhyped for many years both by the restaurant trade and commercial angling interests, even some in this country. Just look at the crazy prices people will gladly pay for "high-end" bass rods and lures etc. It's no longer a fish, its a religious mania with a sizeable number of anglers. A more grown-up view is needed, but its probably too late now.

I've said it before: the unfortunate Bass has been overhyped for many years both by the restaurant trade and commercial angling interests, even some in this country. Just look at the crazy prices people will gladly pay for "high-end" Bass rods and lures etc. It's no longer a fish, its a religious mania with a sizeable number of anglers. A more grown-up view is needed, but its probably too late now.

Never to late. Your right about the high end prices.


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Nothing is ever too late but we need to fix the problem closer to home first. Its my understanding that our Bass stocks do not mingle with Uk fish and are localised to Irish waters..? Thats what I have read in some studies carried out.
Yes there is a lot of hype in recent years about Bass and the market has responded accordingly to cash in, thats not the problem though. Simple CNR starts with the individual. An anglers wish to pay for a fancy rod has nothing to do with their decision to keep or return a fish. I try not to ram CNR down peoples necks these days as its down to the individual. It is fishing at the end of the day and some people like to catch and keep fish. I think its down to educating people rather than shouting at them. That 3 Pound fish for the table has survived a good few years to get to that weight. I think if more people were educated along these lines they may think different.

The problem is the spoofers, the people preaching CNR and keeping Bass regularly and from some stories I have been told more than 2 in 24 hours happening more than we think. If you are keeping a few bass every now and then from your fav marks it wont be long before you start blanking. Dont go blaming trawlers...! It starts with the individual.

Anyway chicken fillets are much easier to cook and they are already cleaned for you..!
That chicken took a few weeks to grow, a similar size Bass fillet could have taken 10 years.

Nothing is ever too late but we need to fix the problem closer to home first. Its my understanding that our Bass stocks do not mingle with Uk fish and are localised to Irish waters..? Thats what I have read in some studies carried out.
Yes there is a lot of hype in recent years about Bass and the market has responded accordingly to cash in, thats not the problem though. Simple CNR starts with the individual. An anglers wish to pay for a fancy rod has nothing to do with their decision to keep or return a fish. I try not to ram CNR down peoples necks these days as its down to the individual. It is fishing at the end of the day and some people like to catch and keep fish. I think its down to educating people rather than shouting at them. That 3 Pound fish for the table has survived a good few years to get to that weight. I think if more people were educated along these lines they may think different.

The problem is the spoofers, the people preaching CNR and keeping Bass regularly and from some stories I have been told more than 2 in 24 hours happening more than we think. If you are keeping a few Bass every now and then from your fav marks it wont be long before you start blanking. Dont go blaming trawlers...! It starts with the individual.

Anyway chicken fillets are much easier to cook and they are already cleaned for you..!
That chicken took a few weeks to grow, a similar size Bass fillet could have taken 10 years.

It doesn't beat bass and chips though

It makes for sad reading alright Jim, particularly because it feels nearly impossible to have any effect on the commercial fishery in terms of reducing catches.
I too think Pat and Eoghan are right about the recreational end of things. Consistently chipping away at stocks on a mark must have a negative effect both in fish numbers and I also think in fish behaviour.
Colm

"I'm ready to tell you my secret now, I see Idiots.......they're everywhere.............they dont know they're idiots"...........

I think chefs, T.V. cookery programs and the likes need to be more responsible and consider the natural world and its current state before advertising the latest food trends.

Is anyone interested in starting a simple e-mail/written letter campaign to restaurants explaining the current plight of the sea bass? This should raise awareness a bit.

I already casually e-mail restaurants located in areas I bass fish, I explain to them the bass bye laws etc. and ask them to try refrain from purchasing locally sourced sea bass. It's hard to get the time to e-mail every restaurant in Ireland! I always think that if I win the lotto I'll employ someone to run a constant bass conservation campaign.

It would also be very useful to educate the public on this matter - anything that may reduce the demand for bass!

John D.

At the end of the report it says

Dr Tom Pickerel, of Seafish, said: “We are starting with the premise the stocks did very well in the late 1990s and early 2000s when we had particularly warm winters which was great for juvenile sea bass to flourish. That led to a demand for sea bass – people got into it.

“The winters got a bit colder in the late 2000s and the sea bass went back to where they previously were. But the market demand was still there. That’s caused a lot more pressure to be put on the stocks.”

When he talks about the colder winters in the 2000's going back to where they previously where , does he mean the bass stocks perished because of a cold winter or did they go to find warmer waters ?

Does this mean that because of the colder winters over the last number of years the fish are still about but not coming into our channels ?

Eddie
Mild winters lead to higher survival rates of immature bass. They spend time in estuaries.

There could be consequences of extended periods of unprecedented weather conditions i.e. very wet summers during 07 08 09 10 coupled to two extreme winters during 10 and 11 this is cumulatively an long period of 'bad weather' where survival was very difficult.

For more info Eddie go here http://www.scribd.com/mobile/users/JimH ... ns/3734715


Jon D - love your reference '......and the like'! I don't hear any voices of 'the like'.

The issue attached was sorted in one hour today by IFI.

Putting your fly or lure in the right place at the right time is great way to catch fish. One of the most common questions I'm asked at my workshops and through e-mail relates to choosing the correct fly or lure at any time for the circumstances.

Those circumstances can be as wide as water colour, depth, speed of current, weather conditions, tidal flow and on it goes. You can do one of many things and make it very simple - fish soft plastics bounced and twitched on the bottom (break your wrist and nothing more) lift and drop in the killing zone and there is no doubt you can catch many many fish. Of course there is a degree of knowledge required as regards timings and a fair degree of water craft and practice and time invested to do this but you dont have to know too much of anything else to have great fun and to catch a lot of bass.

It appears to be fashionable at the moment to knock this technique or the people who practice variations with bigger or smaller soft baits for bigger or smaller fish.

From another angling perspective putting out a fly line and fishing a clouser in the zone and getting it to behave in a similar manner happens to be a more challenging pursuit, for many reasons. And the inevitability here of course is to draw comparisons between the techniques or worse still to divide anglers into segments based on technique and then attach greater or lesser extents of expertise to those anglers and techniques. Even more silly is to think that anglers who practice one or the other and catch large numbers of fish have greater or lesser degrees of 'angling superiority and ability' - effectively dividing anglers into a class system based on techniques or numbers.

Its obvious that to physically and successfully cast a fly on a fly rod into the sea and catch a bass requires more skill than casting a soft bait on a lure rod to do the same thing, but with a far lower catch rate - and what difference does it make really? The choices we make regarding our fishing techniques are our own to learn and discover and practice and perfect as we prefer. Some require more knowledge and effort, others don't. But all require time invested in the fishing environment.

The one element that seems to be forgotten in this frequent bullshit debate of 'bass fishing technology preferences', the most important one, is the fish and its appreciation.

We have a fantastic national resource on our hands in bass fishing in this country. New technologies now allow us to present to fish in many different locations with techniques that have not been possible before allowing us to catch more fish, bigger fish, more mature fish more regularly than ever before. But we dont know how many are out there.

What we do with those fish is our responsibility as anglers, we need at times to proceed with a degree of caution. But we dont know how many we kill or when or what that impact might be.

The fixed spool reel didnt spell the end of angling as was feared by many when it first appeared - nor will soft plastics. There is anecdotal evidence that bass in Irish inshore waters have 'recovered'. But we dont know to what level.

That recovery is nothing in comparison to the abundance of the species that my father would have witnessed as a young man in Wexford. There is no current scientific evidence or political interest to map the scale of that recovery having had twenty years of protection. But we dont seem to know how to leverage the benefits.

Neither is there a will to examine the extent of the blatant clandestine illegal fishery as it continues to contribute to the failure of the fishery to recover even faster. We dont know its impact or true scale.

Much comment is made as to the effects of recreational angling in comparison to commercial pressure - and as the interest and accessibilty to the fish increases so too will the recreational impact. An illegal 200 metres of net in one shoot does immeasurable damage, a re-opened commercial fishery would destroy the species in perhaps two seasons. We dont know if the commercial ban is firm for any period

Recreational impact at this time is at a minimum in comparison to the above. Most bassfisherman I know are C+R oriented and handle fish with care, most will kill a fish for the table very irregularly, most observe the closed season. Some of course dont and have various illogical reasons for not doing so. The closed season begins on May 15th but in fact fish are spawning since mid April because of current conditions.

We dont know the possible effects of growing recreational pressure on important locations on a species like bass in Irish waters.

A fish that is extremely localised, pressurised, and engaged in its own patterns with an influenced growth rate from localised food sources that can be broken are very susceptible to many many pressures

What we dont know are a lot of important things -

Source Probassfisher May 2011

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