Last weekend, around 1000 recreational anglers demonstrated in Cherbourg, France, to express their opposition to the new EU rules prohibiting anglers to keep any Northern sea bass.
The Council decided in December last year to prohibit the retention of any bass caught by recreational fishers north of the 48th parallel, while anglers in the Bay of Biscay can keep three bass per day, and some commercial fishing can continue unaffected.
In Cherbourg, Jean Kiffer, chair of the FNPP (French Federation of Recreational Fisheries, member of the EAA) reiterated that those damaging the bass stocks are not recreational fishers but commercial activities and called for a revision of the 2018 measures in order to allow that anglers can bring home one Northern bass per fishing day during the second half of 2018, while waiting for a new monthly bag-limit, which the EAA hopes will be introduced in 2019.
Mr Kiffer deemed the present measures “incoherent” and “discriminatory” referring to the different angling catch limits in north and south, and in comparison to the commercial fisheries sector’s allowances.
The demonstration in Cherbourg has been deemed a success. A new event is planned for tomorrow (14 April) in Calais, Northern France.
You can watch the TV report on the event in Cherbourg from TV station 'France 3 Normandie' here.
More information on the next event in Calais on the 14th of April is available here.