A spokesman said: “The retention ban is based on a scientific advice from last year. That advice included a much too high estimate for the removals of bass by the recreational fishers, and it didn’t include the commercial fishers’ discards. We complained about that at the time. Now, the data have been reassessed, and a revised scientific advice was published a few days ago. That advice presents more accurate figures, which show much less of an impact on the bass stock by the recreational fishers.

Consequently, in our opinion there is no longer a proper justification for a retention ban, which is doing much harm to the recreational angling community and the jobs and economy dependent on anglers’ spending. Therefore, we have asked the commissioner to reinstate the one bass bag-limit rule from last year as soon as possible. ”

● The letter to Mr Vella and ministers can be downloaded here