SOS Bass recently received this mail following our recent spate of emails relating to Fishing Opportunities in 2017:
Image © Steven Neely
Dear Anglers,
As you know scientists gave us new advice on sea bass at the end of June this year. This new advice is alarming to us all. We in the European Commission have received many e-mails from the angling community in Europe, about the decline of this precious stock. We would like to thank you for your correspondences and continued support in asking us, as the European Commission, to step in and propose the measures that are necessary to stop this negative spiral. It is vital that the angling community continues to be as involved as possible here and that you talk not only to us in the European Commission, but also alert your national administrations and national governments on the need to act.
Let me reassure all anglers and commercial fishermen in Europe that we take this advice very seriously and we will be incorporating it into our proposals for further sea bass management measures for 2017 and beyond.
Before making our proposal however, we want to hear from all stakeholders. We are therefore consulting with several stakeholder groups, including recreational anglers, to develop the best possible measures for rebuilding sea bass. We held a meeting with recreational anglers from the UK, France and the Netherlands on the 12th of September and have listened carefully to their views. We have also met with artisanal hook and line fishermen this September, to exchange views on how to take the management of sea bass forward in 2017, so that we turn around the situation for this stock that is as important for anglers as commercial fishermen.
We will present our proposals for 2017 in early November 2016. These will then be discussed by the Fisheries Ministers from all 28 EU Member States at the December Council of Ministers. Hearing your very concrete concerns and looking at the severity of the ICES advice I can already assure you now that we will propose new appropriate measures for 2017.
Contact SOS Bass info@saveourseabass.org
SOS Bass website please click here.
Thanks to all that have taken part or supported us.
