ICES advice on bass ?

[glennk]

Do ICES or anyone else give advice on the sutainability of the UK bass stock. Also is there a UK quota for bass ? If not why not and who decides ?

[Brian Carragher]

Bass are a non quota fish with only the 36cm mls being the only requirement for landings

[glennk]

Why is this the case though Brian for a fish that is so highly endangered and at risk of overexploitation and long term extinction ?

[Brian Carragher]

No real idea but an educated guess would be that historicly there has never been much of a market for bass except for the South West and there was never much of a commercial fishery as such apart from their traditional stronghold area in the S/W and because of that they've been largly ignored by Defra and their predecessors

 

Much of the commercial pressure on bass and to a cetain extent mullet comes from the trendy tv chefs who tell everyone that bass is the only fish to eat if you're a real foody and thats led to an increase in demand from highly populised areas with plenty of money who have'nt been too bothered how or why their fish ends up on their plates. as a result of that demand and being a non quota species its led to commercial boats who've been quotaed to give bass fishing a whirl. The succesful ones have never looked back and never returned to their previous fishing methods and thats spawned a host of copy cat fisheries in other areas

[glennk]

I was given this article by a member of another forum -

 

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&sourc...UlidbU9OdxwVNLw

 

It suggests bass arent endangered afterall ?? Then I read the B.A.S.S. website and its all doom and gloom ?

 

What is going on and what is the true picture ?

[Brian Carragher]

Just had a quick look at thet Sea Fish pdf and not read it all or digested all the information but from a quick glance looking at the figures it uses, it totally blows out of the water the BASS submission or BMP given that both are using the same date but arrive a totally different results

 

No wonder that Defra acknowledged its publication but ignored all the assunptions and dubios analysis contained within it

[glennk]

So what Story is true Brian ?? I have paid some attention to the bass website over the past few years and read thier press releases with interest. You start to take it in and think its all based in truth. I note on many websites across the internet that you have people who preach catch and release and back it up with the information from the bass website, all the stuff about year classes dieing, the need for an MLS increase and more and bigger fish, overfishing, bass poaching in nursery areas etc etc etc. This information gets thrown at you from all directions and people believe it because BASS say its true. But did anyone ever ask if they can back it up ?

 

I went in search of some scientific information and the very first article (Flying outside the ICES Assessment WG paradigm – Alternative approaches to providing fisheries management advice by Sven Kupschus) I find says bass are at worse on an even keel and are perhaps even increasing in numbers depsite fishing effort - "First and foremost, the stocks are expanding under increasing exploitation levels, suggesting that they are exploited sustainably."

 

Then you look further and you find more research from Pawson saying basically the same thing and also that an increase in MLS could be to the detriment of the stock as a whole. Then another piece of research suggests that "The more and bigger fish" demands of the recreanal anglers could actually be damaging to fisheries science.

 

In half an hour I found 4 pieces of research that says the claims of BASS are unfounded. I am now wondering who to believe ? The home page of the BASS website paints a less than rosey picture of the future of bass fishing in the UK whilst the available science says stocks may even be increasing.

 

Who do I believe and why ?

[barry luxton]

If the bass stock is good or possibly on the increase, where is the reporting of all these say lovely five pounders being caught, where are the photograths. Appears to be a bit strange because there arn't any.

Compare that with the increase of the amount of codling and the few cod being reported in the channel and the north sea, the two don't compare.

 

If the bass situation is 'normal' surly you would expect to see a few decent bassy reports. Have i missed them or it ain't happening.

 

Yes i know there is the odd one here and there coming up, yes we have been out and caught a few this year, but nothing that is worth jumping up and down about. By now we would have expected to see good bassing reports down the southwest and middle channel at least. Strange that, or is it just one of these cycle things.

[glennk]

Just a handful of anglers really trying in this area at the moment Barry and we are finding some decent fish.

 

http://www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/hall-of-fame/index.php

 

I still suspect the large majority of bass catches go unreported anywhere as the angers fear being criticised for catching and keeping thier fish. I read something in an article yesterday, the gist of it was. The biggest threat to accurate reporting of catches (leading to accurate science) is the angling pressure groups calling for more and bigger fish.

[captain cojones]

I still suspect the large majority of bass catches go unreported anywhere as the angers fear being criticised for catching and keeping thier fish. .

 

i expect thats the case too glenn........just out of interest,is there a "cooking your catch" section on the bass site? or any recipies? or any questions about the best way to cook them? just curious.