Bass

Date updated: August 2019
Season: All year
Socio-economic Importance: Being a higher value fish a lot of effort is placed upon bass during the summer months by both sport anglers and commercial fishermen.
Ecological Importance:  Key predator when inshore in the estuaries and along the coast during summer months.
Recreational bass regulations for ICES areas in the KEIFCA district (IVc and VIId):
1 January 2020- 29 February 2020 and 1 - 31 December 2020, only catch-and-release fishing with a rod or a handline for European seabass shall be allowed. During those periods, it shall be prohibited to retain, relocate, tranship or land European seabass (a) 1 March 2020 - 30 November 2020, not more than two specimens of European seabass may be caught and retained per fisherman per day; the minimum size of European seabass retained shall be 42 cm.
North Sea IVb, IVc Channel VIId, VIIe Celtic Sea VIIf, VIIg* Irish Sea VIIa* South West Approaches VIIh (*Inside UK 12nm limit only)
Commercial bass regulations for ICES areas in the KEIFCA district (IVc and VIId):
(a) demersal trawls: unavoidable by-catches not exceeding 520 kilogrammes per two months and 5 % weight of total catches of marine organisms on board caught by that vessel per fishing trip (b) seines: same as demersal trawls (c) hooks and lines: not exceeding 5.7 tonnes per vessel per year (d) fixed gillnets: unavoidable by-catches not exceeding 1.4 tonnes per vessel per year