CALLS have been made for an emergency by-law to be introduced which would limit the size of nets which can be used to fish for bass in Cornwall.

The request has been made after there were concerns that current practices are putting bass stocks in danger of collapse.

An extraordinary meeting of the Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (CIFCA) will be held on Friday to consider the request.

It has come about after concerns were raised that fishermen have been using nets which have small mesh which have resulted in small bass being caught.

This could lead to a lack of bass reaching maturity which could then impact the overall stock of the fish.

In 2015 new restrictions were put in place by the EU which mean that bass must be at least 42cm to be caught under what was called an MCRS (minimum conservation reference size). This was done to address a serious fall in bass stocks.

However while that guideline was introduced there was nothing done to increase the mesh size of nets which would prevent the smaller fish being caught.

Some fishermen have been using mesh nets of between 90mm and 100mm which were designed for the previous minimum size of bass of 36cm.

While no new minimum size of net was introduced some skippers have started using nets of 108mm which are more suitable for the new minimum bass size.

In December a member of the CIFCA proposed that an emergency by-law should be introduced to provide powers for mesh sizes to be increased in the Cornwall IFCA district.

Robin Bradley, a bass angler who has an interest in bass conservation, said he and many others had welcomed the suggestion of a new by-law.

He said: “Stocks remain in a precarious position and the most recent advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea states that the spawning stock biomass has been declining since 2005 and is now below the blim which is the biomass limit, the stock size below which the stock is in danger of collapse.

“The increased size was intended to allow most bass to reach maturity, and give them a chance to spawn, before being harvested.

“Regrettably, the mesh size of the nets used to catch bass was not increased in step with the increased MCRS. This has meant that the benefits of this conservation measure have not been fully realised, since a number of commercial fishermen still use nets of the smaller mesh size, which trap undersized bass, which then have to be discarded dead, with no benefit to anyone, and great damage to the stocks.

“The Marine Management Organisation reported observing undersized bass in a number of landings in the St Ives area in December.”

However, while the request for an emergency by-law is set to go before the CIFCA on Friday, a report on the issue states that advice from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is that any by-law could be subject to challenge.

Mr Bradley said: “We were pleased when we saw that they were convening a special meeting to discuss this, but then we saw the report ahead of the meeting which seems to be recommending that they don’t pursue an emergency by-law.

“This is not just an issue for fishing, this is about conservation of a species and the impact that could have.”

He added: “It is surely in everyone’s interests to use the larger mesh nets as they will help the bass stock to recover.

“There could be a situation in future where there is no bass at all coming into the fisheries. You only need something like the beast from the east happen and it could wipe out the whole stock.”

The CIFCA will meet tomorrow at 10am.