Sprat 

Sprat is distributed throughout most of the Baltic Sea. Sprat spawns in open waters in the Baltic Proper, in the Gulf of Riga and in the Gulf of Finland between March and August. The Gulf of Bothnia is not saline enough for sprat to spawn in.

Sprat stocks fluctuate more than herring stocks. Sprat catches were on an extremely low level in the beginning of 1980s (30,000-50,000 tonnes) but increased during 1995-2005 onto the level of 300,000-500,000 tonnes. The sprat expansion is explained by favourable environmental conditions for hatching accompanied with reduced predation pressure by cod.

Most of the pelagic fisheries in the Baltic Sea take in a mixture of herring and sprat and this makes the actual catch levels of both species uncertain. Sprat is mostly taken as a by-catch of herring.

According to ICES advice (report/2008/Baltic Sea) sprat catches should be less than 291,000 tonnes in 2009. Furthermore, ICES notes that the state of the Baltic herring stocks should be taken into account, especially the stock in the Baltic proper, as they overlap in distribution and fishing area.

 

 

 

 

Reference:

ICES 2008. Report of the Baltic Fisheries Assessment Working Group (WGBFAS), 8-17 April 2008, ICES Headquarters, Copenhagen. ICES CM\ACOM:06. 692 pp.

 

Last updated 3 December 2008