Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I am aware of the Irish Wildlife Trust's request to ban the practice of pair trawling in coastal areas in order to maintain the sprat population to the benefit of seabirds and marine life. Sprat is a short-lived species and an important prey fish for many marine species thus vital to the ocean food chain as well as an important source of income for inshore fishermen.

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. Ireland is committed to ensuring the conservation of the seabirds and marine life around our coast through the Birds and Habitats Directive, among other instruments.

Sprat in Irish waters is not a species subject to fishing quotas or Total Allowable Catches established under EU regulation. Scientifically, relatively little is known about the sprat species. The International Council of the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) considers sprat to be a data limited stock which means that more detailed data is required in order to form a full understanding of the state of the stock.

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.

In order to address the lack of accurate information in respect of the sprat stocks in the waters around Ireland, a three year research project, partially funded by industry, commenced in October 2014 and is now in its final stage, under the auspices of the Marine Institute in cooperation with the 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. 

In addition to this research project, the Marine Institute is  committed to working closely with Industry to obtain increased observer coverage in the sprat fisheries. A number of such observer trips have already taken place this month with more planned. The purpose of the observer scheme is twofold: 

- To obtain biological information on the resource itself and on any other fishery bycatch, ie herring, juvenile mackerel, etc.

- To obtain information on any bycatch this fishery might have of protected, endangered and threatened species, under the European maritime and fisheries fund (EMFF) marine biodiversity scheme such as marine mammals, seabirds and listed fish species.  

It is expected that these projects/observer schemes will allow for more intensive data collection and enhanced scientific knowledge on the sprat stock thus supporting any future management actions considered necessary including the issue of pair trawling.