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Sea Angling News
ISSUE 249 JUNE 2016
NEWS - BOAT & SHORE CATCH REPORTS - TACKLE REVIEWS - ANGLER FRIENDLY ACCOMMODATION - COMPETITIONS - FEATURES
Ltd.
HOUND FEST IN THE SOUTHWEST WINNER
Prestige sea fishing tackle
www.snowbee.co.uk BASS MEASURES FAILING TO PROTECT SPAWNING STOCKS IN THE SOUTH AND EAST OF ENGLAND Changes made last year by Fisheries Minister George Eustice to water-down EU proposals to protect threatened stocks of sea bass have come under fire from angling organisations following the publication of upsetting pictures of captured fish. They show bass secreting milt that were landed by fishing boats in the North Thames Estuary - six weeks after the premature end of the (Feb/March) commercial harvesting moratorium. Similar scenes have been witnessed in Dorset leading anglers and conservationists to question why commercial gill netters and hook-and-line vessels were given a four month exemption from the original EU proposal for a full six month no-take ban for the first half of the year, which still applies to recreational fishing. The male fish pictured was landed by an angler on the 8th May 2016 on a mark East of Bradwell. It weighed around 3lb after excreting milt onto the deck. A second fish of the same size was landed within minutes of the first and also excreted milt. Both were immediately and successfully returned alive however evidence from commercial catches shows that many large spawning fish, fat with eggs, are being sold at the present time.
West Country anglers have been enjoying some cracking smoothound action this week. Clem Thomas (top) with a 25lb 4oz hound caught a private boat off Watchet & Shaun Brewer (bottom) with a 22lb 8oz hound caught on a Newquay (Cornwall) based charter boat. Both fish were taken on crab baits.
During April and May, bass found in the Southern North Sea shoal up in large numbers off the Suffolk and Essex coast to spawn and have again been heavily exploited by commercial fishermen this year. Angling Trust Campaigns Chief Martin Salter said: "It is appalling that at a time when bass stocks are at critical levels the derogation negotiated by George Eustice for inshore commercial vessels has allowed the deliberate targeting of spawning aggregations of a threatened species. "This breaks every rule of good fishery management practice and is a conservation outrage. We are calling for a root and branch reform of the rules governing bass fishing not only to make them fairer for anglers but to enable valuable stocks to have a chance to spawn and for the fry to move into our rivers and estuaries to develop and grow." Mick Sharp, a former member of the Kent and Essex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority, said: "During my four year term serving on the Kent and Essex IFCA, I was bombarded by recreational sea anglers and charter skippers desperate to get something done about the slaughter of bass spawning aggregations inside the six mile limit off the Essex and Suffolk coasts. "You have only got to look at the landing data to see that the peak in bass landings by commercial netters based in Essex occurs during April and May. Many of these fish are the big spawning females, up to 6kg, that we need to preserve in order to replenish future stocks." Nigel Horsman, from the Bass Anglers' Sportfishing Society (BASS), said: "The politically motivated derogation on landing bass by commercial fishermen in February and March was never about fully protecting Continued on page 2...