The European Anglers Alliance urges the following on this issue:

The European recreational angling industry wish to draw attention to

the significance of the socio-economic impact of its activities, especially in the coastal areas of Europe. Studies of the economic impacts of recreational angling from around the world, show that the recreational sector supports many livelihoods often comparable to or even in excess of those supported by commercial fishing. In view of the emphasis within the recent Common Fisheries Green Paper (The future of the common fisheries policy) of the socio economic dimension and for the first time, "recreation" in its "basic principles", we request that our member state governments and the European Commission DG 14 take full account of the socio economic dimension of the recreational fishery for bass when considering the results of the ICES study.

The (ICES) scientific study initiated by the European Union to evaluate existing bass stocks must be passed over to the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) so that they may consider appropriate management measures with a view to sustainably optimising the economic benefits from Europe’s sea bass resources. Such management measures must include the restoration of sea bass stocks so that the species is represented by increased abundance throughout it’s full age structure to comply with biodiversity requirements and to provide larger bass for the realisation of the development potential of the recreational angling industry.

All directed fishing efforts on sea bass must be banned during the spawning period in all areas where spawning takes place. Until this urgent seasonal closure is introduced;

As a precautionary principle, all nations of the EU must adhere to quota measures as already exist in France and the UK (5000kg per week per vessel) and existing fishing effort must not increase.