New Bass Regulations

New regulations have been published for the protection of bass.  These measures come in force as of 29th January 2016.  A summary of the measures are presented below:

Commercial fishers

From 1 January to 30 June  there will be a prohibition on all vessels to fish for, retain on board, relocate, tranship or land bass with the following exceptions –

Where demersal trawls or seine nets are used and bass does not exceed 1% of the weight of the total catch;
From 1 April to 30 June, vessels using hook and line or fixed gill nets can catch 1,300 kg per month.
From 1 July to 31 December – it is prohibited to exceed the following quantities:

Gill nets and hook and line fishers can retain 1,300 kg per month
Other fishing methods can retain 1,000 kg per month
Note – if you fish with more than one gear type, only the lowest catch limit applies and catch limits are not transferable from one month to the other.

Recreational fishers

Catch-and-release only from 1 January to 30 June 2015 including from sea or shore.

A one-bag-bass limit (1 bass, per person, per day) will be in place from 1 July to 31 December.

More information can be found here

The Council Regulation can be found here (please note – the bass measures are found in Article 10).

Reminder to fishers – the minimum size for bass is still set at 42cm

Please get in touch with the office if you have any queries.