Like you, I am concerned that the European sea bass is particularly vulnerable to overfishing, and I know that the Government shares this concern too. Most bass are taken by the French fishing fleet, so Ministers have focused on addressing this issue at the European level by playing an active role in EU discussions about sea bass stocks.
The UK has been a lone voice on this issue and has played a leading role on it in Europe. At the December meeting of the European Fisheries Council last year, the UK's main concern was to agree measures that will allow bass fishing to become sustainable by 2018. All members of the Common Fisheries Policy need to be fully signed up if we are to achieve stock recovery, but there is now a firm timetable to achieve this objective, and I believe it has to be the priority.