Catch and release Bass Fishery - from Simon Coveney

[JimH]

Direct message from Simon Coveney to my Twitter account

I have managed to secure a "Catch and Release" bass recreational fishery for all 2016 - good result + difficult negotiation

[shortcircuit]

I saw that Jim-good news if true. A year round C&R is far better than a complete closed season for the first six months and a 1 fish bag limit for the second six months

[wormy24]

Great news!!!! I was getting a bit worried for a while!!! All the best for 2016 catch and release all the way!!!!!!!!!!

[JimC]

Good news indeed! Expect more clarification later.
Simon Coveney was very well briefed before heading for Brussels...
He has a good understanding of things "sea"... Has a boat himself!

[shortcircuit]

It would be great if the closed season was done away with - it seemed that a lot of people were saying that the spawning was long complete by may 15th and that the dates of the closed season were a bit arbitrary

[JimH]

Briefed, appealed to, e-mailed, letters, phone calls, tweets, data, impacts - all enthusiastic and concerned bass anglers and associated parties no doubt played their role here. It never stops.

SC - the closed season is to me symbolic of commitment to conservation by bass anglers yes its a 'moveable' feast and yes maybe it needs a re-think - nature doesn't abide by calendar dates

[Crevan]

Excellent news. The sensible option methinks.
Remember to email him again and voice your support.

[Jon]

We should all send him an Xmas card

[donal domeney]

Direct message from Simon Coveney to my Twitter account

I have managed to secure a "Catch and Release" bass recreational fishery for all 2016 - good result + difficult negotiation

We should all send him an Xmas card

Maybe JimH could post up a short thank you note with Mr C's Email address and we could all do a "cut and paste" and send it on to Mr C.

[beachcomber]

This is very encouraging and a landmark decision which in my opinion is up there with the original measure to protect
Bass. I look forward to hearing the rest of the policy. Well done Simon.

[Bradan]

Good news. I was pessimistic given Coveney's previous attitude to anglers who are concerned about the massive Galway Bay salmon farm proposal. I suppose this was an easy win for him - no multinational company lobbying for the opposite to what the anglers want.

[mickser]

At least Coveney has done something for the bass NOW lets get him to stop the SUPER TRAWLERS in Irish waters.
Mickser.

[Crevan]

Just sent him an email there.

simon.coveney@oir.ie

[Ashley Hayden]

Let us not lose the run of ourselves people and get all gushy about the Minister just yet. Reference the thread on pair trawling in Dunmanus Bay. Back in September 2013 Minister Coveney and I had a direct conversation at a venue in West Cork not too far from Dunmanus Bay which which I followed up with a correspondence which prompted the usual stock answer.

The conversation with Minister Coveney was let me say very informative and I will leave it at that, suffice to say that an element of the conversation concerned a trawler that had just towed its nets within a casting length of where I was fishing.

As the date shows, that was two years ago and still ocean going trawlers can fish up to the shoreline with impunity.

Not quite the blue eyed boy Simon you have still a ton of work to do to realise the full potential of Ireland's marine resource.

Securing catch and release on bass was forth division stuff, whose nose were you really putting out of joint?

[mickser]

I did have a feeling that Coveney was not up to the job and this confirms it but also the more anglers let him know the more interested he will to do something
mickser

[JimC]

I must say I do not have a whole pile of animosity towards Simon Coveney ( I might have lots of animosity towards his government, but that is a different kettle of fish so to speak ) I have met with him on a couple of occasions and found him to be sharp on the subjects we had in common. He has a knowledge of"things sea" that probably makes him more disposed towards anglers - the alternative politicians could be scary in terms of their ability So better the devil we know.....

As I said before, he was really well briefed in terms of survivability of released bass so he was right to pursue C&R for the first six months as it would suit the Irish camp. I've no doubt that the last raft of anglers emails etc. were supportive of C&R too. The fact that we have no commercial fishery (legal anyway) means that the terms as agreed are OK for Ireland. We will probably never know what went on, who mooted what or who did the soft deal with the commercials... It would be interesting to know.

If we were like anglers in UK, FR, NL I would be savage with the carry on...

[shortcircuit]

I think as regards bass, the deal suits us well, but it probably wasn't too tough to achieve seeing as we didn't have commercials pushing against it here. What must have made a difference though was the info on mortality rates for C&R because I saw some very badly informed figures floating about (upwards of 50%)-which the EU commission must have believed if they wanted to impose a complete ban. Coveney deserves credit for securing the C&R in any case.

Out of interest , I would love to see this site run a survey asking us anglers here what is our observed mortality rate for bass. I wonder also is there a big difference between lure and bait caught fish ?

Other points above:

There is no doubt that the UK anglers were completely sold down the river. The British fisheries minister really screwed them.

Regarding other commercial activity, it seems there is little political will to restrict commercial activity. "If it's legal, sure it must be OK" seems to be the attitude. It seems that incidents like pair trawling in dunmanus or Waterford estuary, or the infamous mullet haul in Cork harbour are doomed to be repeated.I think it's because politicians are willing to say "we can't do anything about it, it's dictated by europe"- It's a great get out clause for them

[keymcg]

Not sure if this is off topic mods but I think Coveney missed out on a great opportunity to review the current status of Bluefin tuna fishing, or lack of it, in Ireland.

A licence to sports fish for this species alone could provide a much needed boost to the economy of the North West at no cost to the government. Indeed it could be a source of income from tax.

The fish are there, the charter boats are there and the demand is there. In any other country this would be a no-brainer but for some reason our government chooses to ignore the obvious and bury their heads in the sand any time the topic is raised.

Donegal bay is literally fizzing with feeding tuna in the summer months. It is illegal for any Irish boat to catch one but our European friends can help themselves the same way as they do annually to over a billion euros worth of fish from Irish waters.



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[JimC]

Yes indeed it is off topic but an interesting point in terms of EU policy and regulation etc.
Our minister cannot at the stroke of a pen decide to "open a BFT fishery"
The rules, quota, regs and laws are determined by EU. For example http://www.sfpa.ie/Portals/0/Legislatio ... %20BFT.pdf

They should have a plan to put something in motion however. The situation at it stands is not great.

During the autumn I heard many stories about boats catching and killing tuna in Donegal bay. That, if true, is unacceptable too!

[johnwest]

Sorry Jim, I cannot open your link.
I would not propose opening a commercial fishery but would be 100 percent in favour of some form of licence for a catch and release sports fishery.
Let's face it, if the fish are there then it's not surprising that some people are going to fish for them.
At least if there was a properly regulated fishery in place this could be curbed.
All it needs is someone with the vision to see that this is an opportunity to be exploited rather than a problem to be ignored

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