Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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392. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his attention has been drawn to the damage to vulnerable stocks in inshore waters by the practice of pair trawling; his plans to ban the practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38311/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I am advised that the practice of pair trawling in inshore waters around Ireland is confined to fishing for sprat (Sprattus sprattus) and consequently I am presuming that this is the stock that the Deputy is referring to when he speaks of “vulnerable stocks”. 

Sprat in Irish waters is not a species for which fishing quotas or Total Allowable Catches have been established under EU regulation. The International Council of the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) considers sprat to be a data limited stock. In order to try and address that paucity of accurate information in respect of sprat stocks in the waters around Ireland, a three year research project, partially funded by industry, began in October 2014 under the auspices of the Marine Institute in cooperation with Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology.

This project aims to develop an accurate and detailed understanding of the stock structure of sprat around Ireland. It will determine whether the sprat in Irish coastal waters is one stock or several separate stocks and it aims to increase our understanding of their role in the broader marine ecosystem. This data will in turn contribute to the ICES assessment of the vulnerability or otherwise of sprat in the waters around Ireland.

The central objective of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is to ensure that fishing and aquaculture activities are environmentally sustainable in the long term through the conservation and sustainable exploitation of marine biological resources and the management of fisheries and fleets exploiting such resources.

 Available scientific information is that sprat in Ireland spawn from January to June with a fishery normally taking place from October to Christmas. This is a fortuitous situation, allowing some degree of reproductive output as the fishery takes place after the fish have been able to spawn. The Marine Institute advise that there is no evidence that spawning sprat are or ever have been targeted in Irish fisheries nor is there evidence that sprat actually spawn inshore. That of course is not to deny that they are easily targeted inshore when they occur there.

I have also been informed  that the Marine Institute is actively pursuing the addition of sprat to the species covered under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Marine Biodiversity Scheme, in 2017. This would allow for more intensive data collection to enhance scientific knowledge and underpin any future efforts at management.