Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)

I thank the Minister of State. Sprat is not economically important. It is quite a low-value fishery but it is ecologically valuable. Everything feeds on it, from fish, whales and dolphins to seabirds. If we do not have sprat, we do not have those other species. Unfortunately, we are in a situation where, because it has not been deemed economically valuable enough, we do not have stock assessments. There has not been a TAC conducted on sprat. That is now causing huge problems because we do not have sufficient data to manage this important species. While I know the Marine Institute has been doing some analysis, it is not sufficient. This is a short-lived species, living for only four years. If there is major overfishing, which it is indicated is happening in some areas, that stock will collapse in the areas in question. It is really important that we have the data available so we can make decisions, not just fisheries decisions but ecological and environmental decisions.

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