The responsibility for sea trout conservation comes within the remit of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.
Regulation (EU) 2019/1241 of the European Parliament and of the Council (as amended) on the conservation of fisheries resources and the protection of marine ecosystems through technical measures (the Technical Measures Regulation) sets out the rules on how, where and when fishers may fish and also includes rules on gear, catch composition and ways to deal with accidental catches.
Under the Technical Measures Regulation, it is prohibited to fish for, retain on board, tranship, land, store, sell, display or offer for sale sea trout when fishing with any towed net within the waters outside the six-mile limit measured from Member States’ baselines in ICES sub-areas 1, 2 and 4-10 (Union waters). This would include the waters around South Kerry that are outside the six nautical mile limit as measured from the baselines.
The Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) is the single legal competent authority responsible for the collection and reporting of fish landings into Ireland. I have therefore forwarded the Deputy's question on the total volume of landings of sprat in South Kerry for each of the years since 2007 in tabular form to the SFPA and have asked them to revert directly to the Deputy with the figures requested.
