The closure date for the Defra consultation on the bass minimum landing size is now past and we wish to sincerely thank all those who have supported Option 2 – an increase in the mls to 45cm.
The rationale behind this move has been available to view on ukbass.com since the launch of the consultation and prior to that, BASS has been promoting the Bass Management Plan and emphasising the importance of setting the mls in keeping with the principle that we should allow female bass (or any species for that matter) to spawn before they are subject to fishing effort and removal from the stock.
During the consultation period, there have been numerous letters and comments in the commercial fishing press, declaring that any increase in the mls will impact heavily on the commercial sector. Claims that bass form a significant part of fishermen’s livelihoods and that many fishermen will lose out considerably, have been put forward. These claims appear to be based on speculation, without any evidence and with much emotion, rather than facts.
The BASS response to the consultation has met these claims and others, which are either aimed at maintaining the current mls, or propose the adoption of very modest increases, head on and we have produced a 20-page consultation response to the proposals.
BASS supports Option 2 – to increase the bass mls to 45 cm, with accompanying mesh increases to 110mm.
Our full response can be viewed here as a pdf file. You will require a copy of Acrobat Reader to read the pdf file, a free download is available from the Adobe website.