The advice of the European Unions fishery scientists for the management of bass stocks in 2017 in the area that includes the UK is:
“ICES advises that when the precautionary approach is applied, there should be zero catch (commercial and recreational) in 2017.”
We will report further here on this and our suggested response to this in the next few days. It is worth remebering however that in recent years when increasingly severe reductions in landings have been recommended to prevent further stock decline, commercial fishermen have lobied against restrictions and polititians have largely ignored their own scientist’s advice. It is therefore no surprise to many of us that we have reached this sad state of affairs.
The ICES report is here: http://www.ices.dk/sites/pub/Publication%20Reports/Advice/2016/2016/bss-47.pdf
