EU Proposal To Make Bass And Turbot Quota Species

An EU proposal has been put forward to make bass and turbot quota species with a total allowable catch (TAC) set for 2013. The Angling Trust has is working with the European Anglers Alliance (EAA) to block this proposal which we believe will do nothing to benefit recreational sea anglers and may even lead to future restrictions on recreational fishing.

EAA will be attending a benchmarking session in October where scientists from across Europe will look at all the available data on which a decision will be made. We will be recommending that:

-Not enough is know about bass stocks and more data needs to be collected before a TAC can be considered.
-The years on which TAC will be set were based on very high levels of recruitment which have not been repeated.
-The TAC and quota system has blatantly failed to protect other species – let’s not add bass and turbot to the list of Common Fisheries Policy failures.
-Other technical measures including higher minimum sizes and restrictions on the winter offshore fishery would be more appropriate.