Seabass

With limited data on the seabass population (or stock) in this area and recreational fishing pressures, which are known to be substantial, there is concern for stock biomass and fishing pressures.Route 2 scoring has been applied to this rating owing to the lack of reference points for fishing pressure and biomass. Seabass has a medium resilience to fishing pressure.Stock identity of seabass in this region remains unknown. The combination of slow growth, late maturity, spawning aggregation and strong site fidelity, increase the vulnerability of seabass to overexploitation and localised depletion. In the absence of information about this species, there is concern for biomass.Total catches cannot be quantified. Due to the Irish seabass moratorium, commercial landings are close to 0 from 2012 onwards. However, recreational removals are known to be substantial (estimated 30-40 tonnes annually) but cannot yet be quantified, yet still estimated significantly above total catch advice of 2 tonnes. For stocks without information on abundance or exploitation, ICES considers that a precautionary reduction of catches should be implemented where there is no ancillary information clearly indicating that the current level of exploitation is appropriate for the stock. This was applied again in 2023. Therefore, there is concern for fishing pressure.ICES advises that when the precautionary approach is applied, commercial landings should be no more than 2 tonnes in each of the years 2024, 2025, and 2026. The reduction in advice (-33%) is due to the application of the precautionary buffer and rounding.

There is no management plan in place for seabass in this area. A series of management measures exist within the area but concern over the impact of known substantial recreational catches on the population, above advised limits, needs addressing.There is no precautionary management plan for seabass in this area. Seabass is not subject to Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and quotas. Commercial catch is negligible, however, estimated recreational catches have been substantially above advised annual catch levels for many years.Efforts to better manage and quantify recreational catches need to be made if we are to fully understand the impact of these activities on the stock. There is evidence that illegal targeting of seabass is taking place: if this continues, it could jeopardise the status of the fishery.A series of emergency management measures were introduced in 2015, in the UK, and have since been developed upon. These are detailed below.Management measures in UK waters, 2023, includes:Closed areas: southwest approaches (7b-c, 7j-k).Closed season: February – March (spawning season).Gear restrictions: all gears (including drift nets) prohibited, except fixed gillnets, hooks and lines.Effort limits: no bass can be taken from inshore fisheries by fixed or drift nets.Catch limits (per authorised boat): hooks and lines (6.2 tonnes per year), fixed gillnets (bycatch of 1.6 tonnes per year), demersal trawls and seines (maximum 5% of weight of all marine organisms per trip; unavoidable bycatch 3.8 tonnes per vessel per year), all other gears (zero-catch).Recreational catch limit: 2 fish per day, per fisher, except during spawning season (catch and release only).A moratorium on commercial fishing for seabass has been in place for Irish vessels fishing in Irish territorial waters in subareas 6 and 7 since 1990. For recreational fisheries, seabass legislation changes annually. In 2023:Closed season: February - March (spawning season).Recreational catch limit: 2 fish per day, per fisher, except during spawning season (catch and release only).A Minimum Conservation Reference Size (MCRS) of 42cm is in place for seabass fished within EU and UK waters, which provides protection to immature fish. Seabass reaches sexual maturity at 42cm in this region.Discards are unknown. The landing obligation does not apply to seabass. Therefore, any catches by any fishing gears (authorised or unauthorised) over the set limit, and/or below MCRS must be discarded.In the EU, compliance with regulations has been variable, and there are ongoing challenges with implementing some of them.In the UK, it is too early to tell how effective management is, as the Fisheries Act only came into force in January 2021. The Act requires the development of Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs). FMPs are currently in development, but the scope of them remains unclear. They have the potential to be very important tools for managing UK fisheries, although data limitations may delay them for some stocks. MCS is keen to see publicly available FMPs for all commercially exploited stocks, especially where stocks are depleted, that include:Targets for fishing pressure and biomass, and additional management when those targets are not being met, based on the best available scientific evidenceTimeframes for stock recoveryImproved data collection, transparency and accountability, supported by technologies such as Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM)Consideration of wider environmental impacts of the fishery

Seabass is caught using a variety of fishing gears (i.e., gillnet, hook and line, trawl and seine), some of which can have high levels of bycatch of non-target species and habitat impacts upon the seabed, by abrasion and smothering in this ecoregion.Seabass is a shoaling, schooling fish, caught by commercial and recreational fishers. Today, nearly all catches of this Seabass stock are from recreational fishing since a moratorium on commercial fishing for seabass was put in place for Irish vessels fishing in Irish territorial waters (subareas 6 and 7) in 1990.Most commercial catches are taken in targeted fisheries, with additional landings of sea bass taken as a bycatch. French vessels take most of the annual catch, although UK, Irish and Spanish vessels have participated in the past. Inshore, small day boats operate using a variety of methods with relatively little activity in late winter/early spring. It is not currently known what proportion of seabass in this region are caught by the individual fishing methods known to be employed.Pelagic fisheries (purse seiners and mid-water trawls) are deemed to be some of the cleanest fisheries in terms of bycatch, disturbance of the seabed and discarding. However, demersal otter trawls use doors to hold nets open that penetrate the seabed, resulting in the abrasion of habitat features, and smothering in this ecoregion. Otter trawling generally occurs within the same historical areas, reducing impact. Bycatch of non-target species can be high in otter trawls and can sometimes entrap endangered, threatened and protected species in certain circumstances. Spurdog and the common skate complex are known to be unintentionally caught in mixed demersal trawl, and gillnet fisheries, within the Celtic Seas ecoregion.In the Celtic Seas, longline fisheries pose the greatest threat to seabirds offshore, while inshore net fisheries catch diving species (relatively high rates of common guillemot bycatch have been observed). Fisheries with risk of marine mammal bycatch in the Celtic Sea are bottom setnets (bycatch of harbour porpoises, grey seal, and several dolphin species but at lower rates) and pelagic trawls (bycatch of common dolphin). It is likely that the bycatch of harbour porpoises in gillnets on the Celtic shelf has affected population abundance at least in some past periods. Calculations of potential biological removals (PBR) indicate that this bycatch may be unsustainable in this region.The main mitigation measures are Marine Protected Areas, some of which are designated for benthic features. If those MPAs were found to be subjected to bottom trawling, MCS would consider it a default red rating unless there is evidence (e.g., environmental impact assessment) indicating the activity does not damage the integrity of the site.UK regulations to reduce the impacts of fishing on marine habitats and wider species are under development, in the meantime most EU regulation have been adopted. Under EU legislation, bycatch species should be managed within scientifically defined or, where data isn’t available, suitability precautionary sustainable exploration limits. If stocks fall below a certain threshold, measures can be brought in such as gear limitations (e.g., mesh size or depth of use), time and/or areas closures, and Minimum Conservation Reference Sizes (MCRS).