08/24/2025
Sprat are small sea fishes, members of the large Herring family. They look like a Sardine or a small Herring. They are numerous in the sea, travel in large shoals, and are an important part of the marine food web as they are eaten by several predators ranging from larger fish to seabirds, to seals, to whales and dolphins.
Sprat are an oily, nutritious source of human food too and are sometimes sold smoked or in tins under the name brisling, brisling sprat, or whitebait and are prized for their delicate flavour and tender texture.
Only a small proportion of the Sprat caught by fishers goes for human consumption, a much larger proportion is processed into fish meal and fish oil for industrial use or as animal feed, particularly for livestock and farmed fish.
Scientists working with the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) monitor fish stocks and provides advice on catch limit for sustainable Sprat fishing to conserve stocks to ensure an ongoing livelihood for fishers, and to ensure that there are enough fish left to maintain the food web that marine wildlife depends on for its continued survival.
Data collected by the Sea Fishery Protection Authority (SFPA) in recent years show that while Sprat landings vary, the tonnage recorded is often in excess of ICES advice threatening both the livelihoods of fishers and nature conservation. As a result, a number of Save our Sprat (SOS) local groups have sprung up with some interests calling for a complete moratorium on Sprat fishing in waters inside the six nautical mile limit.
The government’s response has been a comprise, a Policy Directive, which directs that from 1 October 2025, vessels over 18 metres fishing for sprat within the six nautical mile zone will require authorisation and will be subject to a quota limit of 2,000 tonnes. From 1 October 2026, all vessels over 18 metres in length overall—including those targeting sprat—will be fully excluded from trawling inside the six nautical mile zone and inside baselines.
It now remains to be seen how the fishing industry responds. A court challenge to the new Policy Directive may be mounted by large trawler owners and, in that event, it by no means clear what the outcome of a judicial review may be.
And if the large trawler owners chose not to go down the legal route, will the small inshore fleet fill the vacuum left by large trawler owners and simply pick up the slack by catching what the large trawler owners were taking in the first place?
Ocean Integrity believes the harvest of sprat will actually increase this upcoming year. We need a complete ban of sprat within the fishmeal industry.
