News & Updates
Sprat fishery closed for large trawlers as year’s quota hit in under two weeks!
It has taken large Irish-owned trawlers less than two weeks to land the interim year’s quota of 2,000 tonnes of Sprat for 2025/2026, resulting in the closure of the Sprat fishery for vessels over 18 metres in total length.
The interim quota, set to run from 11 October 2025 to 30 September 2026, was introduced to provide a period of…
The importance of forage fish
Originally published by Colin Barnes on his Cork Whale Watch “Skippers Log” in October 2019 — this post gives a skippers-eye view of the fate of forage fish off the West Cork coast, from someone who’s been at the business end of the issue for decades, both as a long-time commercial fisherman and one of…
Sprat- The Damage Done, May 2018
Originally published by Colin Barnes on his Cork Whale Watch “Skippers Log” in May 2018 — used here with permission from the original author.
For anyone following the discussion regarding the Irish government’s proposal to exclude large trawlers over 12 mts length fishing within 6 nautical miles of the coast, we hope that this article…
Update on sprat conservation issue in West Cork, Nov. 2014
Originally posted by Whale Watch Skipper and former commercial fisherman Colin Barnes on the Skippers Log section of his Cork Whale Watch website in November 2014
It is now mid-November, and true to the time of year, we have plenty of stormy, wet and disturbed Atlantic weather, making poor conditions for searching for and watching…
Decimation of Irish Sprat Stocks
This article was originally posted to the Cork Whale Watch Skippers Log by Colin Barnes, a long time commercial fisherman and one of Ireland’s most experienced and well respected whale watching operators in January 2014
Last January I wrote to Minister for Agriculture, Marine and Food, Simon Coveney, TD highlighting the problem of unsustainable inshore…
