Uncontrolled sprat fishing will hurt whole industry, warns whale group

Unregulated and uncontrolled fishing of sprat by mid-water trawlers off the Irish coast has decimated this year’s inland stocks, Cork Whale Watch has warned.

Viewed as a vital biomass upon which larger fish feed, the sprat catches sell for around €100 a ton. Leisure activity company Cork Whale Watch (CWW) says this makes neither economic nor ecological sense.

“Only scraps remain of this season’s sprat shoals,” said CWW proprietor, Colin Barnes. “If this fishery is allowed to continue unregulated and uncontrolled, as it is at present, there is a real danger sprat stocks will become rare or even extinct. Similar fishing pressure was directed at the herring stock that gathered and spawned in the Stags and Toe Head area of West Cork.”