Seabass fishing (FOI)

Request

A

Following a recent decision by the Environment Minister to reintroduce monofilament netting to the bass fishery, I would like the agenda and submissions regarding the matter from any Marine Resources Panel meeting in 2018 where this was discussed. If possible I would also like to see any subsequent minutes from that meeting. I have searched online for these details but it appears that no details of Marine Resources Panel meetings have been posted since October 2016.

B

In addition, on 1 October 2018, the States of Jersey Fisheries & Marine Resources Dept. issued a press release which contained the statement, "Monitoring of bass in Jersey also suggests that bass in local waters is now in recovery.....". There has been a commercial hook and line bass fishery in effect locally since early 2017. The dozen or so commercial fishermen who held such a licence were required to record details of each bass they caught, irrespective of whether it was kept or not. I would like to obtain the data collated from this requirement, for example - number of fish caught and a breakdown of those under the MCRS (Minimum Conservation Reference Size) of 42cm and those above that size.

C

Despite claims that this 'monitoring' suggests that bass in local waters are in recovery, I am unable to find any trace of the data recorded which supports this.

Response

A

The Marine Resources Panel made the decision regarding the reintroduction of netting to bass fishery at their last meeting on 19 November 2018. The Agenda and submission for this item are contained in the PDF documents below:

Agenda item 4 - Sea Bass

Marine Resources Panel 18 November 2018

The minutes will not be available for viewing until they have been signed off at the next Marine Resources Panel meeting which is due to take place towards the end of February 2019.

B

A decision was made towards the end of 2016 to stop posting the minutes of the Marine Resources Panel meetings on-line due to the extremely low number of page hits. Copies of minutes for meetings from November 2016 onwards are available upon request.

 C

Please see attached document showing numbers of bass caught in 2017 and 2018.

Bass data returns 2017-2018