The Danish industrial fishery by DFPO and DPPO has been MSC-certified in 2017. This fishery is fishing on European sprat, lesser sand eel and Norway pout with purse seines and midwater otter trawls. The main part is used to make fish meal.
Sprat swims high in the water column, so fishing has no bottom impact. There is however 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.