A succession of poor spawning years and increased fishing pressure has led to a steep decline in the bass spawning stock.
The seriousness of the situation has at last been recognised by EU Fisheries after their scientific advisory board this year stated there needs to be an 80% reduction in bass landing. Plans are being discussed to achieve this through measures such as reducing fishing effort, protecting the fish during spawning and allowing more juvenile fish to reach spawning size.
But Europe is dragging its heels and arguing over quotas and the different ways to achieve a reduction (and no doubt whether they really need a full 80% reduction), while the fishing pressure continues unabated.
There are things we can do to increase the pressure on our Fisheries Minister to act and signing this petition is one small thing to help build the pressure. So PLEASE take a minute to do this.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-our-sea-bass?bucket=&source=twitter-share-button
Thank you
(The total who have signed has already hit near 500 in the 20 hours since it was launched!)