On the 21st May 2009 the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF - main commercial fishermen's organisation) made a proposal [1] to Minister Conor Lenihan to allow Irish commercial fishing vessels to land sea bass caught in offshore waters.  In their proposal they cited the 2007 CEFAS (Centre for Enviroment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science) report [2] by Dr. Mike G. Pawson as justification for their proposal.  The FIF claim that this report suggests that the offshore fishery bass stock is in a healthy state. IT DOES NOT!

In addition the FIF propose that they alone engage with the Marine Institute under the Industry/Science partnership in an assessment of the Irish inshore bass stock with regard to future exploitation.