Written answers

Wednesday, 12 December 2018

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Fisheries Protection

Photo of Martin FerrisMartin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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197. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the ongoing pair trawling for sprat in estuaries and bays in view of the concern of conservation organisations and persons; and the way in which he plans to remedy this practice. [52410/18]

Photo of Michael CreedMichael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Sprat is a short-lived species and an important prey fish for many marine species therefore it is a vital species to the ocean food chain as well as an important source of income for inshore fishermen.

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, in cooperation with the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, have participated in a three-year research project which was partially funded by Industry, in order to address the lack of accurate information in respect of the sprat stocks in waters around Ireland. The aim of this project was to develop an accurate and detailed understanding of the stock structure of sprat around Ireland and the data collected will also contribute to the ICES assessment of the vulnerability or otherwise of sprat in the waters around Ireland. This project commenced in 2015 and is due to be completed in 2019.

In addition to this research project, the Marine Institute, in close cooperation with Industry, participated in a number of observer trips in the sprat fishery in 2017 and 2018, the purpose of which was twofold:

- To obtain biological information on the resource itself and on any other fishery by-catch, i.e. herring, juvenile mackerel, etc.

- To obtain information on any by-catch 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.  

A risk assessment of fisheries interactions in Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) including for Harbour Seals in Kenmare Bay by the Marine Institute, noted that the risk posed by pelagic fishing on harbour seals through by-catch and disturbance of haul out locations was low.

The Observer programme greatly increased the number of trips on board vessels fishing Sprat from about 2 trips per season to 15 trips in 2017. In 2018, sampling effort (7 trips) was focused on the south coast as the northwest had been well covered the previous year. Bycatch information from these data is preliminary and will be analysed once sufficient sampling over area and season has been achieved. The reason for fewer observer trips in 2018 is that the programme was concentrated in the South west where trips are logistically more difficult due to greater diversity of vessels and ports as well as longer trips.

A public consultation process to examine the arrangements for trawling inside the six nautical mile zone and inside the baselines ended on 11 June 2018.

Over 900 responses were received in relation to the public consultation and these have been carefully examined.  Taking into account the submissions received and having undertaken further analysis I plan to announce my decision relating to any possible measures shortly.

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