Today the EU Council announced an agreement on the  2019 catch limits for commercial fish stocks. The agreement was based on their commitment to the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP): environmental, economic and social sustainability.

For bass anglers, the main change is that we have a limit of 1 bass per angler per day from 1st April to 31st October. Any fish caught above the limit during that period must be returned unharmed and any bass caught outside the limit must also be returned. No bass may be retained under the MLS.

We had hoped that bass would be further protected by a proposed increase in the restriction on the fixed netter’s daily catch limited. However our own Fisheries  Minister, George Eustice, and Defra completely rejected this. For the third year running, the UK has agreed to unenforceable ‘unavoidable bycatch’ restrictions for fixed netting.  We think that the UK Government has taken a disgraceful position on this.