SAVE OUR SPRAT
saveoursprat.bsky.social
SAVE OUR SPRAT
@saveoursprat.bsky.social
120 followers 100 following 9 posts
SAVE OUR SPRAT is a local community *including fishermen* campaign for a ban on all industrial sprat trawling in Bantry Bay, West Cork, until the species recovers. https://www.saveoursprat.ie/
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Industrial scale trawling threatens the complete collapse of sprat populations on which the incredibly rich marine ecosystem of Bantry Bay depends.

SAVE OUR SPRAT is campaigning for a moratorium on all such activity until the species recovers.

Please join or support us!!
www.saveoursprat.ie
We here at Save Our Sprat want to stop the indiscriminate fishing of Sprat in Bantry Bay to ensure its future as a key link in the food chain on which our marine life and the people around the Bay are dependent on.
www.saveoursprat.ie
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
Half of Ireland’s rivers, lakes and estuaries in unhealthy state as standards slide again.

Successive governments have "engaged in rhetoric around restoring rivers and lakes to health rather than implementing real measures to prevent decline." - SWAN

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
Half of Ireland’s rivers, lakes and estuaries in unhealthy state as standards slide again
Agriculture, sewage, chemicals and physical damage all threatening nature’s waterways
www.irishtimes.com
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
Counting down the 10 final days of our shore survey, we want to inspire you until the very end! Plan a survey in your local area now, and explore the complex varieties of seaweeds on your shores! Book your survey unit today! Coastwatch.org
(Images via iNaturalist and Seaweed.ie)
Be part of our fun event on Sunday in Bantry! We'll collect near the bay for a group drone shot of the letters 'Save Our Sprat', followed by a free viewing of Ocean, the new Attenborough film. TD Jennifer Whitmore will tell us about her proposed bill.

Please come along, and please share!!!
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
"If you had a Marine Protected Area, you'd see more fish coming, more marine life and they'll get bigger and more abundant" - Ivan Donoghue of Wexford Sub Aqua Club. 

#FairSeas
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
"Thousands of dolphins probably dying off Irish coast every year - but no research to find out why"

Hardly a mystery why, when the French limited supertrawler activity the dolphin death count dropped significantly

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
Thousands of dolphins probably dying off Irish coast every year - but no research to find out why
Undersea cameraman Ken O’Sullivan has spent 20 years among the charismatic mammals
www.irishtimes.com
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
🚨 UK seas have undergone the warmest start to any year since records began, putting our marine habitats & wildlife under immense stress. Marine heatwaves should be rare but they're now terrifyingly common. This is not normal. Time for a green future, NOW. www.cmscoms.com?p=44926
Surge in sea temperatures drives dramatic changes in UK marine ecosystems  - Ocean and Coastal Futures
Ocean and Coastal Futures - We’re all about connecting people – organising events, creating communications and promoting job opportunities.
www.cmscoms.com
GREAT NEWS!!!

As Pádraic rightly says, the fight for inshore ecosystems goes on, but this is an important victory for Irish marine life!
It appears that a ban on boats over 18m within 6mn of the coast is to come into effect next year while a quota will apply to sprat. This doesn't go far enough as we need to end all trawling and dredging but this is progress so good news!
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
🐬 With a dolphin pod threatened by noise pollution, fishing gear & boats, campaigners on an island off South Korea are lobbying to extend legal status to the vulnerable animals. Can giving these dolphins the same legal rights as humans help save them? www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Could giving this pod of dolphins the same legal rights as humans help keep them safe?
With a bottlenose population threatened by fishing gear, boats and pollution, campaigners on South Korea’s Jeju island are lobbying to extend legal status to the vulnerable cetaceans
www.theguardian.com
This is why our community is fighting to save wild sprat, and will never give up.

They're the crucial bedrock on which entire natural ecosystems are built.
Breakfast! Lots of food coming in for hungry Pufflings on the Isle of May…the chick of this parent is being well fed! A combination of Sandeels and a large sprat
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
Whale-watching tours forced to close down because the whales have been starved out of our waters due to the overfishing of sprat by Irish trawlers.

No scapegoating of the EU this time the responsibility rests squarely in Clonakilty and Casteltown-Bear. share.google/plNfKhjzuaxx...
‘The whales have moved on’ – Cork businessman forced to abandon whale-watching tours
A Cork businessman has been forced to abandon taking people out on whale watching tours around West Cork’s marine wildlife due to a lack of sprat which is a food source for whales.
share.google
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
‘Save Our Sprat’ West Cork ⬇️.

Join/support this campaign to stop this lunacy that is sprat fishing.
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
🚨 Do not believe the government spin that providing for MPAs in amendments to an existing law will be just as effective as a standalone law! 🚨

Huge work has gone into the creation of the MPA bill, a draft of which was first published in 2022. There was a public consultation and a report from a...🧵
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
Bottom trawling is devastating the ocean BUT THERE'S HOPE!

🌊Because when nature's left alone, it will recover. A trawling ban in Dorset saw fish diversity shoot up by 430% in 10 yrs 📈 The ocean will bounce back if we let it!

Time for full bans in protected areas🪸 only.one/act/uk-mpa-c...
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Essential thread on the government's shameful backtracking on establishing Marine Protected Areas in Irish waters, an utter disaster for nature and coastal communities alike.

It also tells you how to communicate your outrage to your local FF-FG TDs.
👊
🚨 Do not believe the government spin that providing for MPAs in amendments to an existing law will be just as effective as a standalone law! 🚨

Huge work has gone into the creation of the MPA bill, a draft of which was first published in 2022. There was a public consultation and a report from a...🧵
Reposted by SAVE OUR SPRAT
I just rang the taoiseach... ok he didn't pick up but I left a message saying how disgusted I am that he has pulled this stroke. FFG will get away with whatever they can but people can stop this if they let their politicians know that it won't pass without a fight.
I'm just learning that the government is planning to drop its commitment for a Marine Protected Area Act and I'm disgusted. Anyone who made a submission to the public consultation on this a few years ago should be too. I have been ringing my local politicians (especially FFG) to express my feelings!