Anglers have a voice — and it’s being heard
For years, the Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society (BASS) and the Angling Trust have campaigned for bass protection laws to be properly enforced. One of the most frequent and shocking breaches involves fixed net fisheries. These are permitted to land bass only as bycatch, yet many landings show bass as the sole species, providing clear evidence of targeting.
Even when commercial fishers openly admitted targeting bass in industry media, something the Angling Trust and BASS highlighted more than a year ago, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and Cornwall IFCA (CIFCA) did nothing more than acknowledge the issue.
Our calls to act on repeated 100% bass landings, clearly not incidental bycatch, have been ongoing for nearly a decade. The MMO and CIFCA have consistently deflected, blaming DEFRA for failing to define what counts as “unavoidable” bycatch. Even after DEFRA quietly dropped “unavoidable” from the wording, they still failed to offer any replacement clarity for fixed gears, leaving the enforcement burden on proving “intent.”
Yet CIFCA itself seemed willing to assess intent when it suited them. In a January 2024 blog, they referenced a recreational prosecution, noting: “He said the net was used with the intention of catching red mullet, despite its 95mm mesh size being unusually large for catching this smaller fish species in Cornish waters.” So, why the double standard when it comes to commercial gillnetters?
CIFCA’s 2021 statement was especially troubling: “Whilst no definition exists, there is no option but to treat EU monthly or annual bass bycatch allowances as straightforward catch limits, regardless of any other fish landed.” That statement handed commercial netters a green light to breach the spirit of the law. And it publicly undermined enforcement, something no regulator should ever do.
Meanwhile, MMO guidance was also weak. Until a key edit made on 2 June 2025, Section 2.3 of its website stated:“You are permitted to catch and retain bass with… fixed gillnets…” This phrasing failed to clarify that such retention is only allowed as bycatch. “Permitted to catch and retain” reads to most as a green light to target. The law itself has always been stricter, but the guidance didn’t reflect that.
What has changed now?
At the end of April, BASS independent consultant Grant Jones attended a series of MMO meetings on the south coast, focusing on bass authorisations under the Fisheries Management Plan (FMP). During these, commercial fishers again admitted to targeting bass using gillnets.
A month-long campaign followed, led by BASS and supported by the Angling Trust, calling on the MMO to respond. We made clear that to hear these admissions and not act would amount to nonfeasance of duty. The MMO has a legal obligation to uphold the legislation that underpins the bass fishery.
And finally, on 2 June 2025, the MMO acted. They updated Section 2.3 of their bass guidance to state: “For clarification, catching bass using hook and line is the only authorised targeted fishery. If using fixed gillnets, bass can only be fished and landed as bycatch.”
This is a win. It brings the guidance in line with the law and sends a clearer message to the fleet: bass may not be targeted using gillnets. This change only happened because we showed up, spoke out, and did not let the issue drop.
What comes next?
Now it’s time for CIFCA to do the same. We call on them to retract their previous 2021 statement and clearly echo the MMO’s clarification: that bass must not be targeted in fixed gillnets. Anything less would not just be a failure to enforce the law, it would be an invitation to break it.
BASS and the Angling Trust thank the MMO for making this long-overdue correction but it must be the first step. Stronger enforcement is still missing, and without it, even the most promising proposals in the bass FMP will fall flat. If we can’t manage today’s fishery, we won’t be trusted to manage tomorrow’s.
