Bass are highly sought after by both commercial fishermen and recreational anglers alike, but the fish are relatively scarce so strict limits are in place both on minimum size and the number caught. If you fish for bass recreationally, from 1 July until the end of the year, you are currently only allowed to keep one fish per day. In the first half of the year, any bass must be returned. The minimum size you can keep in the permitted period is 42 centimetres (16.5in). Generally, wild bass is considered to be unsustainable but farmed bass can be a sustainable option. There are also some hook and line fisheries that tick the sustainability box.
The availability of fresh, wild fish is completely subject to the vagaries of nature but, from the cook’s point of view, it isn’t all bad news. Very few fish recipes won’t work with an alternative. As a rule of thumb, you can swap any of the flat fish, most of the oily sea fish, and replace one white fish with another. Bass is a pretty distinctive fish but a good alternative would be black bream.