Reporting
One of our aims is to collect evidence regarding the trawling activity in Bantry Bay.
Part of the Bay is designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and yet the trawlers operate in these areas with no regard to the SAC and often fail to activate their AIS location transponders to avoid public scrutiny of their activities in the Bay.
Therefore, we must take note of when these infractions are occurring so that they may be provided as evidence for the infringements of current Laws & By - laws.
Please send pictures or videos of any future trawling in Bantry Bay to info@saveoursprat. ie or post on our Facebook page in the link below.
Please click here to see “How Can I Tell If There Are Sprat Trawlers In Bantry Bay?”
Lobbying
To have our voice heard we need to gather support to increase the strength of our Lobbying power.
Our plan is to build a coalition of like - minded organisations in neighbouring bays to create lobbying group of large numbers to ensure that our voice will be heard in government and other relevant institutions.
There are lobbying activities that you can also contribute to such as signing petitions and writing to your local politicians.
Below there are links to the Change.org Petition and a template letter to your local TD that we have raised for you to sign and send respectively.
Please click on this link and sign our petition to Call for a moratorium on industrial sprat fishing.We will also be coordinating public events to assist in our lobbying.
Raising Awareness
We will inform the public, local & national regulatory agencies, politicians and NGOs of the importance of sprat to the coastal environment to encourage the implementation of an immediate moratorium on trawling in Bantry Bay until sprat stocks recover and more sustainable fishing legislation and regulations can be established and enforced.
Click here to find out more about the issue of coastal water sprat trawling.