#Angling - Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) has established a new National Bass Programme to collect data on bass in order to provide scientific advice to support management and conservation of Ireland’s only marine fish managed for angling.
According to IFI, the programme is being developed to determine the status of bass stocks and also to improve understanding of their ecology and biology in Ireland for the long-term sustainability of the species.
Commercial fishing for bass has been banned in Ireland since 1990, as Derek Evans outlines in his recent Irish Times column, following a dramatic decline of bass stocks in the 1980s.
The ban has not been without controversy, however, as our own Tom MacSweeney wrote last year of the farcical situation whereby other EU states have been allowed to fish for bass in Irish waters on a commercial scale, and even land their catch at Irish ports.
But this new programme could tell a more positive story of the health of bass in Irish waters, and pave the way for the future return of a commercial bass fishery in Ireland.
Details for anglers on how to take part in the programme by submitting bass scale samples are available on the IFI website HERE.
