Bass being commercially exploited again!?

[MackDublin]

Tourism Ireland have a major push/investment on at the moment to increase tourism from the UK.
Has anyone contacted them yet to make them aware of potential further damage to that market if commercial fishermen are allowed to start hoovering up Bass?

They would be another very significant body to have on our side.

[franck breizh angler]

Hi all ,

I m ' call Franck Geffroy .J ' am 38 years old .I live in Brittany (France).
I often come in Ireland with my friends or my family to fish for the sea bass or the pollack...
I fish exclusively with lures.With my friends, we practise the " catch and release ".

When i learnt this bad new, i signed immediately the petition. Numerous lovers of Ireland will make it so much in France.
We begin to make it circulate on the internet.

Your country is our fishermen's paradise. We shall make what we shall can to help you in this fight

Friendly
Franck

Where can i do my presentation on the forum ?
Thanks

[franck breizh angler]

http://www.pecheaubar.com/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=28434
http://www.achigan.net/msgforum.php
http://forum.river-predators.com/index.php

Your petition begins to make the tour of the French forums.

We are going to continue to spread it as much as possible in France.

[John D]

Well done franck breizh angler and thank you and all your fellow countrymen for your efforts.

Perhaps you could also write to our Ministers Tony Killeen and Conor Lenihan?

If you decide to write perhaps you could mention what you said in this thread that you and your fellow countrymen see Ireland as a fisherman's paradise?

Thank you,
John D.

[corbyeire]

After a conversation and a submitted letter.
A Postive Reply from
Conor Lenihan TD
Minister for Natural Resources

12th March 2010


Sea Bass Fishery


Dear Mr. Roe,



I refer to your recent representations regarding the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) proposal that Irish commercial fishing vessels be allowed to target sea Bass and land it when caught in offshore waters.



As you may be aware the making of regulations for the management of the sea Bass fishery is a matter for the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Recently, I expressed a number of concerns I have regarding this proposal, particularly given the status of sea Bass stocks and their importance and contribution to sea angling.



Despite the absence of a commercial sea Bass fishery in Ireland for almost two decades, there is no empirical evidence of any significant or consistent increase in sea Bass abundance based on available indices, and stocks remain depleted. As Ireland's indigenous Bass population is slow-growing and late maturing compared with European stocks, I share the concerns voiced by fisheries managers that any resumption of the commercial sea fishery would adversely impact on stocks.



I support the proposal that the International Council for Exploration of the Sea should be requested to examine the latest data on the status of sea Bass stocks and propose management measures for this species. I expect, however, that the Minister of State responsible will not agree to the FIF proposal in the absence of robust assurances from scientists that it will have no negative impact on Irish Sea Bass stocks.



Yours sincerely,



________________________

Conor Lenihan TD

Minister for Natural Resources

this is a great reply - hopefully more like it will follow

[red]

Well done franck breizh angler and thank you and all your fellow countrymen for your efforts.

Perhaps you could also write to our Ministers Tony Killeen and Conor Lenihan?

If you decide to write perhaps you could mention what you said in this thread that you and your fellow countrymen see Ireland as a fisherman's paradise?

Thank you,
John D.

i already sent him a pm with the relevant names and addresses and he kindly agreed that he would send the letters on and get a few others to do likewise.

many thanks to the foriegn lads for getting involved in this. they have other countries they could choose to spend their hard earned money in with fishing trips but they chose Ireland. theres obviously a good reason they come here and hopefully the relevant authoroties will see that, and if the bass are gone, the tourists will be too.

[teacher]

I support the proposal that the International Council for Exploration of the Sea should be requested to examine the latest data on the status of sea Bass stocks and propose management measures for this species. I expect, however, that the Minister of State responsible will not agree to the FIF proposal in the absence of robust assurances from scientists that it will have no negative impact on Irish Sea Bass stocks.

I see a few problems with this. Firstly, Paul Connolly who authored the problematic Marine Institute advice on Bass for 2009 is also vice president of the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) so its reasonable to expect that ICES would make similar recommendations to the Marine Institute.

Secondly, Conor Lenihan states that "the Minister of State responsible will not agree to the FIF proposal in the absence of robust assurances from scientists that it will have no negative impact on Irish Sea Bass stocks". The Minister already has these assurances in the Marine Institute's Bass report, which many consider to be deeply flawed.

Finally, its strange that only one person has received this letter. Is the Minister trying to hide from this issue by not replying to everyone else that write to him?

[JimH]

Good stuff T, great clarity - now add a cabinet re-shuffle to the mix and boy are we on a knife edge.

[davetilly]

yes Jim i think the whole thing is if a election comes early .then the ban gets lifted .full term for government were OK for another 3 years.

[scannerman]

as far i can see bass have never stopped being exploited

for years bass have and continue to feature regularly on restaurant menu's up and down the country, yet there is a commerical ban on fishing for them, which begs the question, who's catching them and from where?

[Tanglerat]

as far i can see Bass have never stopped being exploited

for years Bass have and continue to feature regularly on restaurant menu's up and down the country, yet there is a commerical ban on fishing for them, which begs the question, who's catching them and from where?

Most are farmed Bass, imported from Greece.

[jd]

Good stuff T, great clarity - now add a cabinet re-shuffle to the mix and boy are we on a knife edge.

Could be interesting today. If Killeen gets promoted,there is a good chance it could be either Cuffe or Connick taking his old job...

[scannerman]

fair enough tanglerat but i simply don't believe all the bass served in restaurants is farmed

i've also been told by local anglers in the southwest that bass poaching is a serious problem in several areas especially co kerry

[MackDublin]

Tony Killeen is out of his ministry.
Do we know yet who is taling his place? Its really important that the new person in gets up to speed on the issue from our point of view as soon as possible

[jd]

From
http://www.politics.ie/current-affairs/ ... night.html

(3) Ciarán Cuffe, T.D. to be Minister of State at the Departments of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Transport and Environment, Heritage and Local Government, with special responsibility for Horticulture, Sustainable Travel and Planning and Heritage,

4) Sean Connick, T.D. to be Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, with special responsibility for Fisheries and Forestry;

http://www.seanconnick.ie/ is his web site

[Tomaszek]

Frankly I'm not following Irish politics at all. So in short is it good or bad for our case?

[teacher]

Sean Connick, the new Minister for State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, has stated on his website that he is in favour of re-opening the commercial bass fishery. It also appears he feels commercial fisherman should be allowed access to Irish inshore bass stocks. We can be sure that the commercial fishing intrests will be contacting him immediately to make sure he looks after their intrests.

This means it's letter writing time again to make sure that he is aware of our interests.

It is absolutely vital that anglers take the time to wirte to him straight away focusing on the following points:

• How much they spend on their bass fishing and how much it benefits people in remote costal communities.
• Keeping sea bass as a recreational resource is the right thing to do as commercial fisherman have already proved they cannot sustainably manage the species.
• Bass angling is an €8 million industry which directly and indirectly employes hunders of people and those jobs must be protected.

We want to make sure that Sean Connick has a few hundred letters from concerned anglers on his desk within the first week of taking up office.

Write to :
Minister Sean Connick
Priory Lane
The Quay
New Ross
Co. Wexford

Email: sean.connick@oireachtas.ie
Mobile: 087 2564576

The following extract from an article by Ed Fahy might be useful when pointing out to the new Minister of State how stock have only recovered to a very small fraction of their levels prior to 1967:

"Between 1985 and 1995 bass numbers in Irish waters reached their lowest levels. estimates, based on anglers’ catches, suggest populations were 1.4% of their levels prior to 1967. In 1987 a ban on commercial fishing was introduced but five years later, Irish-caught bass were still on sale in shops and restaurants. The ban on sale and on fishing appears to have arrested the decline and, in the following decade, bass numbers increased threefold. Illegal fishing has not however been eliminated."

(E. Fahy, "U-turn on bass policy by Irish Marine Institute", Fishing News, 5th March 2010, p. 24.)

[bigballs]

been told by a local trawler man that he got a call about buying bass nets as it is a done deal that they will be aloud target bass this summer from north wexford to west cork for a 6 week period as a trail to see whats there anybody else hear this

[teacher]

been told by a local trawler man that he got a call about buying Bass nets as it is a done deal that they will be aloud target Bass this summer from north wexford to west cork for a 6 week period as a trail to see whats there anybody else hear this

No, haven't heard this from any of our sources in the fisheries board or the department. I don't believe its a done deal at this stage. The argument on our side is too compelling.

Targetting bass on a trial basis in that way wouldn't make sense to me either because the effect on stocks wouldn't be evident for many years.

[liamdenn]

So Val Falvey is now in charge of fisheries, God help us all. Please have a look at the link below from his website to see some recent comments. Val before you start making populist locally driven decisions remember the €8m Recreational Bass fishing brings to the economy. Thats a lot of jobs minister!

http://www.seanconnick.ie/index.php?opt ... &Itemid=36