European sprat is a small, common fish from the herring family. Sprat is caught for the canning industry, to smoke, for bait, but mainly for the fish meal and fish oil production. Sprat grows fast and reaches up to 4 years of age. Sprat is lightly fished.
This fishing method is not harmful to the seabed, but there is a lot of bycatch of young herring. Young herring is hard to differentiate from sprat and is also often found in the same school. This bycatch is often landed and calculated with the herring bycatch quota that is applied to the sprat fishery.
The European Commission determines a TAC for sprat every year. This has however not fully been used in the past years, because the fishery was limited by the herring bycatch restrictions that are applied. To limit the bycatch of young herring are there next to the bycatch quota also closed areas and closed periods.