Bass stocks - correspondence from European Commission

[John D]

Hi guys.

I recently received correspondence from Bernhard Friess who is a fisheries director with the European Comission.

His correspondence includes a link to the European Commission's fisheries site and a 'protecting sea bass' article that is interesting.

Please find a copy of the correspondence in inverted commas below.

"EUROPEAN COMMISSION

DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR MARITIME AFFAIRS AND FISHERIES

ATLANTIC, OUTERMOST REGIONS AND ARCTIC

Brussels, 30th April 2015

Protection of Sea bass

Dear Madam, dear Sir,

Thank you for your recent correspondence in relation to the management of sea bass. The Commission very much shares your concerns. As you may be aware the Commission is tackling the serious state of sea bass with a package of three measures for 2015.

The first element was a Commission decision taken in January 2015 to put in place emergency measures to close pelagic trawling on sea bass aggregations from 28th January to the 30th April 2015 (the pelagic trawling season).

The second element of the package is the decision by the Council of Ministers to limit the outtake of sea bass for recreational anglers to 3 fish per angler per day. This particular measure has been discussed and supported by anglers associations from the UK and France ahead of the decision and the Commission welcomes the constructive attitude of Europe's anglers to improve the state of sea bass. This measure has in the meantime been published in the Official Journal of the European Union on Saturday 28th March.

The third element of the package under consideration concerns measures to limit the outtake of sea bass by commercial fishing metiers for the remainder of 2015 and to increase the minimum landing size for sea bass to 42 cm to provide further protection. Such measures will need to be approved by the national fisheries ministers (Council of Ministers).

With this overall approach the Commission tires to make sure that all fisheries that impact on sea bass contribute to its rebuilding.

I would also direct your attention to a document recently published on the News and Events page of the Commission website providing information on questions concerning sea bass. We will continue to update this page:

http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/mare/iteml ... 47&lang=en

Let me in the end thank you for your interest in the issue of sea bass and the need to provide protection to this stock.

With best regards,

(signed)

Bernhard FRIESS

Director"