Your help is needed please: Stop Cornish Fixed Netters Illegally Targeting Bass

Do we really deserve this glorious planet when you think about how we as the dominant species treat it? We are in the midst of a global pandemic the like of which you and I could never have imagined might happen during our lifetimes, and whilst I do wonder what how our lives will be when we come out the other side, I don’t personally believe that commercial fishermen are going to suddenly grow a conscience and start giving a flying f%£$ about the marine environment and the future of various fish stocks that are already under scary amounts of pressure. Sorry if you think I am picking on the commercial fishing sector just because I am an angler and I’d love more and bigger fish to catch - I’d love to be able to bathe in the romanticism of these guardians of the seas carefully managing their commercial fishing efforts in fully sustainable ways, but I can’t. All I seem to read and hear about is how the commercial sector rapes the seas for short-term financial gains with a screw the future attitude. Read the headlines from a recent Save Our Sea Bass blog post and tell me I’m being unfair here……………….

“Fixed netters in St Ives bay are reported to be illegally hammering bass as they aggregate to migrate to offshore spawning areas. We are told one vessel has landed 1.5 tonnes of bass in one night (more than its 1.4 tonnes annual allowance) and earned around £5,000 and now other vessels have seen this and are swooping in. Targeting bass as they aggregate to migrate offshore and spawn damages the bass stock, and threatens bass angling all around the UK”.

SOS need your help again, and you can find all the (easy to follow and do) details on their blog post here. If you read this blog on a regular basis then I hope you have picked up on what is going on here in Cornwall, but this deliberate targeting of bass as they come together to move offshore and spawn isn’t just a Cornwall thing. I am no biologist and I don’t pretend to know much about marine science, but there is nothing in me which thinks that doing this isn’t anything but a bloody disaster for bass stocks yet again it seems. Please check out the SOS blog post and send that email. Thank you and you all have a good weekend……………...