Minimum Fish Sizes
Information on the minimum fish sizes you are allowed to take by law from the sea around the UK. The list below does not include all fish species but some commonly caught fish people take for the table. If in doubt put it back, it’s better to have a healthy breeding population and only take decent size fish. There isn’t really much to eat on the smaller fish anyway.
Minimum Fish sizes
| Species | Scientific name | MCRS in UK waters* |
|---|---|---|
| Anchovy | Engraulis encrasicolus | Whole area, except ICES division IXa east of longitude 7° 23′ 48″ W: 12 cm or 90 individuals/kg.ICES division IXa east of longitude 7° 23′ 48″ W:10cm |
| Bass | Dicentrarchus labrax | 42 cm (1) |
| Blue ling | Molva dipterygia | 70 cm |
| Cod | Gadus morhua | 35 cm |
| Haddock | Melanogrammus aeglefinus | 30 cm |
| Hake | Merluccius merluccius | 27 cm |
| Herring | Clupea harengus | 20 cm |
| Horse mackerel | Trachurus spp. | 15 cm |
| Ling | Molva molva | 63 cm |
| Mackerel | Scomber spp. | Whole area, except North Sea: 20 cm.North Sea: 30 cm |
| Megrim | Lepidorhombus spp. | 20 cm |
| Plaice | Pleuronectes platessa | 27 cm |
| Pollack | Pollachius pollachius | 30 cm |
| Red Sea Bream | Pagellus bogaraveo | 33 cm (2) |
| Saithe (Coalfish) | Pollachius virens | 35 cm |
| Sardine | Sardina pilchardus | 11 cm |
| Sole | Solea spp. | 24 cm |
| Whiting | Merlangius merlangus | 27 cm |
This is taken from the UK gov marine management organisation and are the minimum fish sizes conservation reference for UK fishing.
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