Some anglers believe that the purpose of angling surveys is ultimately to control sea angling. This is not the case, as the government would not wish to impose unnecessary regulatory burdens where they are not needed. However, where there is strong evidence that a fish stock is being overfished and badly depleted due to the combined effect of commercial and recreational fishing, all people involved in taking fish of this species from the sea should bear a responsibility to help conserve and restore the stock. Without good data on what is being caught by all types of fishing, it becomes very difficult to develop the most effective packages of measures to achieve this and to predict and monitor their outcome. Sea angling surveys could highlight circumstances where anglers should play an important role along with commercial fishermen in this process of restoring vulnerable or overexploited stocks, for example bass. In this case governments would seek to work with the angling sector to agree voluntary measures or to contribute as effectively as possible to development of international and domestic regulatory measures where there is a clear need for them.