White Fish: Conservation

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 11 November 2014.

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Photo of Ben Bradshaw Ben Bradshaw Labour, Exeter

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she expects to publish the review commissioned in 2012 into the evidence supporting an increase in the minimum landing size for sea bass.

Photo of Ben Bradshaw Ben Bradshaw Labour, Exeter

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the recent Solent bass survey; and what steps she plans to take in response to the findings of that survey.

Photo of Ben Bradshaw Ben Bradshaw Labour, Exeter

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to introduce domestic bass conservation policies.

Photo of George Eustice George Eustice The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The 2014 Solent bass survey provides confirmation of five successive poor year classes (2008 – 2012) and some initial indications of an improvement in numbers of one‐year‐olds from 2013, although the impact of the latter on future stocks will depend on subsequent survival.

These findings are consistent with the most recent scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES), reflecting an ongoing trend on a wider scale that European bass levels are unacceptably low and action must be taken at EU level to reverse the decline.

The EU has published draft proposals for measures to apply to both recreational and commercial sectors in 2015. We expect these will be discussed at December Fisheries Council. Once the final form of any EU agreement is known we will subsequently consider additional domestic measures that will include a review of the minimum landing size.

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