Time to Get Rid of the Bass Nets Fishing Opportunities 2017
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Time to get rid of the Bass Nets Fishing Opportunities 2017 Bass Briefing - November 2016 Executive Summary Bass stocks are in deep trouble due to commercial overfishing and the failure to follow scientific advice on the need for effective conservation measures. The Angling Trust and B.A.S.S. fully support the EU Commission’s proposals for bass fishing opportunities in 2017, as do other commercial and recreational bodies across Europe. The proposal allows only sustainable fishing in 2017: recreational and commercial hook and line fishing – no gill nets which cause not only damage to fish stocks but to seabirds and cetaceans. The proposal lays the foundation for a sustainable bass fishery, delivering superior long-term socio- economic returns to society. Commercial hook and line and recreational bass fishing will deliver both conservation objectives and a better economic return. The economic impacts of last year’s disproportionate restrictions on anglers have been extremely damaging to a sport that delivers up to 40 times the economic and employment impacts of the commercial bass fishery. It is critical that EU Fisheries Ministers agree the proposals in full, without watering them down as they did last year – to the dismay and anger of recreational anglers and other conservationists. There are four weeks left before the EU Fisheries Ministers meet to consider the proposal. The Angling Trust and B.A.S.S. will be working hard throughout this period to put pressure on the decision-makers and to facilitate anglers, businesses and livelihoods reliant on providing anglers with goods and services, and other conservationists getting their voices heard. 1 Background Up until the 1980s sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) – which are present in the central and southern North Sea, Irish Sea, English Channel, Bristol Channel, and Celtic Sea – were primarily a recreational species and subject to very little commercial exploitation. Since then the stocks have been over-fished with little attempt to control and manage the fishery, despite repeated warnings from scientists and conservation bodies. The decline was inevitable and entirely avoidable. Organisations like the National Federation of Sea Anglers, now part of the Angling Trust, and the Bass Anglers’ Sportfishing Society (B.A.S.S.) have been campaigning for the introduction of bass conservation measures for more than 20 years. Things looked hopeful in 2004 when the Net Benefits report by the Cabinet Office recommended that fishery managers look at making bass a recreational-only species. This was followed up by the publication of a Bass Management Plan by B.A.S.S. in October 2004. Sadly, the reports stayed on the shelf, bass stocks continued to be over-fished and the unsustainable minimum size limit of 36cm remained in place until last year’s long overdue rise to 42 cm – the absolute smallest size at which bass reach maturity and are able to reproduce. Bass stocks are now in real trouble EU scientists said in April 2015: “The spawning stock biomass is declining towards the lowest historically observed level.” In 2016, we reached an all-time low for the spawning stock biomass: 7,320 tonnes. The sea bass spawning biomass estimate for 2017 is even worse, just 6,219 tonnes. That represents just one and a half years of commercial landings (2010-13 average commercial landings = 4,136 tonnes). These current estimates are well below Blim, which is 8,075 tonnes. This means the scientists now think there is a high probability that the stock’s ability to regenerate itself will be impaired due to insufficient egg production. The risk now is that, even if fishing is much reduced, the stock fails to recover as expected and remains depleted for an extended period. Scientific advice issued by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) in June 2014 recommended an 80% cut in bass fishing mortality across the EU area for 2015. This followed the 2013 2 advice for a 36% cut which was ignored. In 2014 bass landings by UK vessels rose by 30% (from 772 tonnes to 1,004 tonnes). There is no doubt that inshore gill-netting has played a significant part in the decline of bass stocks. For example, in 2014, UK gill netters landed 646 tonnes of bass – more than the ICES 2016 Northern Stock advice of 541 tonnes for whole of the EU. Recreational angling bodies are not in the least surprised that ICES is now recommending a total moratorium for most fishing methods in 2017. For several years, we have warned that unless EU Fisheries Ministers started taking heed of the scientific advice and began radically reducing the commercial catch limits, then the solutions proposed by ICES would get ever more draconian. The ICES advice for 2017 can be viewed here. Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) There are two major factors which are dramatically reducing bass stocks at present: fishing mortality is reducing stocks; and the lack of recruitment from the disastrous 2008 to 2012 spawning years means those fish harvested are not being replaced. The lack of recruitment to the stock will continue for at least another two years (until the 2013 year-group start to mature). This fact, together with the adult stock now being below the danger level, means precautionary measures are needed and the MSY approach should cease to apply until the stock recovers to a sustainable level. The MSY approach involves the largest caches that can be taken over the long-term without causing the population to collapse. The legal requirement is to keep the stock above a level that can produce the MSY by 2015 and, in exceptional circumstances, by 2020 at the very latest. With the lack of recruitment to the adult fishery, achieving these legally binding targets will require a very significant reduction in historic catch levels. Vessel Catch Limits have not worked Vessel Catch Limits (VCLs) were introduced in June 2015 and the December 2015 Fishing Opportunities meeting amended them for 2016 (increasing them for some gear types). When we checked to see how much impact the 2016 VCLs would have had if they had been introduced in 2014 in the UK, we were shocked to see that they would impact only 6% of all vessels landing bass and only 3% of per vessel monthly landings. The UK’s Devon & Severn IFCA recently noted: “with only a few possible exceptions, commercial fishing vessels landing to designated ports within the Authority’s district would not have got close to, let alone exceeded the 2016 monthly catch restrictions during the previous year, suggesting that this Northwest Atlantic wide measure will not have much effect locally.” And “Analysis of MMO data identified one vessel in Plymouth exceeded the proposed 1.3 tonnes limit in one month during 2015. Not all ports as yet analysed but Plymouth represented the largest landings of bass in the District.” The EU’s Science Technical & Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) estimated in December 2014 that a one fish bag limit would cut UK recreational retained catches by 52%. Recreational anglers can be forgiven for asking how this can be fair. The one fish bag limit for RSA has little conservation value while VCLs remain so high – recreational anglers are being forced to release bass only for them to be caught commercially. 3 The following graph shows the impact of VCL cuts on landings. To deliver a cut of 70%, monthly VCLs would need to be just 140kg or lower. Feeding Britain - or not? The claim that the commercial sector fishes for bass to “put food on British family’s tables” while recreational fishing is just a 'hobby' doesn't stand up to the facts. The full 2015 UK Catch Data are avalable here. It shows that: Imports of bass to the UK were 8,500 tonnes. Landings of bass into the UK were 600 tonnes Exports of bass from the UK were 400 tonnes Of the 8,700 tonnes of bass consumed in UK just 200 tonnes (2.3%) were derived from the UK catching sector. Two thirds of all bass landed in the UK by commercial vessels were sold abroad as a cash crop. Gill nets versus Hook and Line The selectivity of monofilament gill nets has been exaggerated. As hanging ratios have declined, and twines have become finer and more supple, selectivity has declined. 4 The previous minimum legal size for bass of 36cm, introduced in 1990, was supported by a minimum mesh size of 90mm following Cefas studies. The current size limit of 42cm was implemented with no increased minimum mesh size. Cefas studies show 90mm mesh size nets will mostly catch bass below 42cm. Even 100mm mesh gill nets will potentially catch a high proportion of bass below 42cm. In March 2016, the Cornwall IFCA’s Principle Scientific Officer reported that during nine days of fishing in Falmouth Bay (Winter 2015/16) a vessel that used 100mm mesh gill nets caught 680 bass, of which 82% were below the 42cm minimum landing size. Time to remove the bass nets “It would make excellent economic sense to switch the sea bass fishery to hook and line fishing only. This transition would yield the biggest economic reward, it would reduce fishing pressure, solve the problem of overfishing and allow rebuilding of the stock to healthy levels.” Professor Callum Roberts, Professor of Marine Biology, York University, 2014 We, and others, have long argued that the nets must be removed from the European bass fishery to rebuild stocks and to allow the more sustainable and economically valuable commercial hook and line and recreational fishing sectors to flourish. Hook and Line fishing is the most sustainable form of harvesting of bass and allows undersized (and oversized) fish to be returned alive.