Copies of the excellent book of articles written by BASS members about bass fishing titled Bass and B.A.S.S. should be available in the BASS shop relatively soon (http://www.ukbass.com/shop/). A few copies of this book have also been generously donated to The BASS Blog team. We feel using some to get yet more people signed up for the BASS newsletter and a couple to promote this blog seems most appropriate.
The newsletter is really important way of highlighting bass related conservation and campaigning issues to you (http://www.ukbass.com/newsletter/) – and you don’t have to be a BASS member to receive them. So, if you sign up to the Newsletter by the first of January (the link is on the right side of the BASS homepage) you could be one of the three randomly selected to win a copies of Bass and B.A.S.S. And if you are already signed up you don’t have to do anything, as you are already in the draw!
We love to receive your feedback to our blog posts – be it wise, informative or humorous! So we also plan to give 2 further copies of the book to the writers of the best 2 comments made on our blog posts between now and the end of February.
There are two events of significance this week relating to our campaigning and our bass that you should be aware of. On Wednesday the unveiling of the findings of Sea Angling 2012 takes place. This survey (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/biggest-ever-national-sea-angling-survey-to-boost-sport) used a variety of (sound) methods to identify a large representative sample of sea anglers in England. It will report on areas that include the numbers of anglers, how much we catch and our value to the economy. Its findings are likely to prove valuable in getting decision makers to consider the effects of future choices on angling, rather than on the commercial fishing sector alone.
Then on Thursday the EU fisheries people meet again to see if they can come out with an vital agreement for emergency measures for the EU bass stocks (http://www.ukbass.com/the-st-has-hit-the-fan/). The feedback we have received suggests nearly all the EU is arguing for a sensible mixture of measures including banning fishing for spawning aggregations of bass in the late winter, while the French prefer a solution involving a quota on bass. This quota would it seems be based on recent historical catch data, and as the country that lands most would result in them getting the big slice of this (ever shrinking) pie in the future. Whatever agreement is reached (if any) we can but hope it will be made in the best interest of our bass stocks.
For the news on both of the above keep you eye on both this BASS blog and the BASS website – though there may well be mention of it in the national press.