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White Fish: Conservation

Volume 472: debated on Tuesday 4 March 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will introduce measures to protect spawning bass. (189947)

Scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea in 2004, and subsequent advice to DEFRA from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, suggests that the bass stock is fished sustainably. I currently have no plans to introduce measures to protect spawning congregations of bass. However, with a view to providing additional protection for stocks of bass, I announced last year a review of bass nursery areas and inshore netting restrictions.