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New study: Commercial and recreational fisheries for wild seabass in the Atlantic
The study focuses on the economic performance of fleets that are most dependent on the wild seabass Atlantic stocks and also analyses the main markets for this species.
The new study on wild seabass takes into account that in 2018 the first sales of Northern stock were highest in volume at Ijmuiden/Velsen in the Netherlands (54 tonnes), while for the Southern stock, the main place of sale was at the French port of Les Sables-d’Olonne (537 tonnes). Wild-caught seabass accounts for a very minor share of annual trade compared to farmed seabass. Recreational seabass anglings accounts for between 20% and 50% of the total catches, and reperesents an overall economic weight of more than €262 million in the EU (France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium) and the UK. At the retail stage, seabass is marketed as whole fresh fish segmented by three main criteria: production method (with higher prices for wild-caught than for farmed), size and fishing gear used (hook and line-caught fish are more expensive, reaching up to 35 EUR/kg on the French market).
