SAVE OUR SPRAT

Deep sea mining is a recipe for certain disaster - Blue Planet Society A team of scientists investigating a large area of the Pacific Ocean known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone have found an astonishing 5,000 new species living on the ocean floor. The species they logged...

A team of scientists investigating a large area of the Pacific Ocean have found an astonishing 5,000 new species living on the ocean floor. 🐙

We must refrain from #deepseamining to avoid huge environmental damage and yet another human-made disaster: blueplanetsociety.org/deep-sea-min...

Large trawler restrictions welcome but careful management still needed It has been a long road to get to this point, but will it finally result in pressure being lifted on important ecosystems and in particular the small whale populations that have abandoned the south co...

The ban on inshore trawling will not result in benefits for wildlife without proper regulation of this zone - something the government can do unilaterally (i.e. without EU approval unlike the offshore area), but will they?

www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/ou...

GREAT NEWS!!!

As Pádraic rightly says, the fight for inshore ecosystems goes on, but this is an important victory for Irish marine life!

Rethinking Marine Protected Areas - why current practices are failing - Blue Planet Society We keep hearing that 30% of the ocean will be protected by 2030. But only 8.4% of our blue planet is protected, and just 2.8% is effectively protected. We need drastic change to achieve the 30% target...

Rethinking Marine Protected Areas – why current practices are failing ❌

We're told that 30% of the ocean 🌊 will be protected by 2030. But only 8.4% of our blue planet is protected and just 2.8% is effectively protected.

✊Real change is needed #30x30
blueplanetsociety.org/rethinking-m...

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

🐬 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/...

Why Ireland is failing with marine preservation | Newstalk There are calls for the government to follow through on the promises made to ensure marine preser...

I was on Newstalk earlier trying to explain why Ireland has been so hopeless in protecting our marine environment.

Listen back 📻 ⤵️
www.newstalk.com/podcasts/hig...

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.

Whitmore introduces emergency Bill to protect sprat stocks - Social Democrats Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore will introduce a Bill in the Dáil today proposing a moratorium on commercial sprat fishing in Irish waters, citing urgent concerns for marine biodiversity and the...

Great to see this bill by Deputy Whitmore.

Sprat is a key food source for much of our marine wildlife🐳🐬🦭

Yet it has been fished intensively without a quota or plan. A moratorium is needed to collect & process the data to support a sustainable quota.

www.socialdemocrats.ie/whitmore-int...

‘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.

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...

‘Save Our Sprat’ West Cork ⬇️.

Join/support this campaign to stop this lunacy that is sprat fishing.

🚨 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...🧵

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...

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.
👊

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.

FAIR SEAS CRITICISES GOVERNMENT U-TURN ON MARINE PROTECTION | FairSeas Government intention to scale back commitment to stand alone marine protection legislation, in favour of amending offshore energy legislation.

Government intention to scale back its commitment to stand alone marine protection legislation, in favour of amending existing offshore energy legislation, is a worrying development in the protection of Ireland’s seas.

Full press release ⬇️

fairseas.ie/2025/07/02/g...

#FairSeas

Killer whales make tools from kelp to 'massage' each other Orcas have been filmed using kelp as a tool to massage each other

📽️ Orca have been recorded for the first time in an activity called 'allokelping' 🌿a marine version of when monkeys groom each other to bond socially

In a rare glimpse of whale society, a grandmother orca can be seen using kelp to massage a youngster🔽
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Tell UK Leaders: Ban Bottom Trawling in Marine Protected Areas The UK government has finally announced a plan to ban destructive bottom trawling in 41 offshore MPAs. The catch? It’s not a done deal. A public consultation is open NOW before anything is finalised —...

🚨 Help us BAN bottom trawling in ocean havens FOR GOOD!

UK Govt has proposed bans in 41 protected areas but they want to hear from the public before they do it ⚠️ We don't have long to respond! 🪸

Take action NOW with us, @bluemarinef.bsky.social & Only One 🌊🔽 #ForTheOcean
only.one/act/uk-mpa-c...

Scotland’s Historic Ecocide Bill: A Turning Point for Ocean Rights and Marine Protection - Blue Planet Society Scotland is poised to make legal history with the introduction of the Ecocide (Prevention) (Scotland) Bill, the world’s first national-level legislation to formally criminalise ecocide.

Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
is poised to make legal history with the introduction of the Ecocide (Prevention) Bill, to formally criminalise ecocide. 👏

The Bill opens the door for recognising oceans as rights-bearing entities.

🌊 By The Ocean Rights Coalition (UK) blueplanetsociety.org/scotlands-hi...

UK government proposes ban on bottom trawling in Marine Protected Areas | Discover Wildlife Government proposals to ban bottom trawling in more vulnerable marine habitats aim to protect important and rare underwater life.

“There's been a watertight scientific & economic case on the need to stop bottom trawling in marine protected areas”

Only 38 of 377 MPAs are fully protected from bottom trawling. It's shocking.

@hugotagholm.bsky.social in Wildlife Mag on the proposed bans 🔽
www.discoverwildlife.com/environment/...

Colleagues at #UNOC2025 come to Ocean Base Camp at 1.30!
We will be speaking about an unregulated and unrestricted fishery for sprat in Irish coastal waters that is having devastating impacts on the marine ecosystem and livliehoods of inshore fishers. @saveoursprat.bsky.social @fairseas.ie

‘Nothing left’: Irish whale-watching company closes amid ‘overfishing’ Sprat fishing has disrupted the food chain and diverted humpback, minke and fin whales as well as dolphins

‘Nothing left’: Irish whale-watching company closes amid ‘overfishing’

Sprat fishing has disrupted the food chain and diverted humpback, minke and fin whales as well as dolphins
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...
#ClimateEmergency #Biodiversity #Ireland #SpeirGorm

‘It’s an empty, lifeless sea’: Whales leave Cork waters, putting watchers out of business Stocks of sprat have crashed, forcing whales away, says businessman whose livelihood has been ruined

The overfishing for sprat is an 'ecological disaster'.

In February 2024, the Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Marine held another public consultation on trawling activity inside the six nautical mile zone.

Nothing has happened since.

www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...

Great to see the pillage of sprat and the ecosystems that depend on them highlighted on the radio by @thinkorswim.bsky.social

We're looking forward to his forthcoming book, due for release this coming September! 📖

Seas off Cork a 'marine desert' due to overfishing of sprat, says owner of whale-watching business Skipper Colin Barnes said the whales have left his search area of ocean off Cork because the sprat they feed on has been fished to near extinction

"Seas off Cork a 'marine desert' due to overfishing of sprat, says owner of whale-watching business."

Sprat, the basis of entire ecosystems, is being hoovered out to turn into fishmeal, an *insanely* wasteful process.

Who or what gives them the right???
www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster...

A whale-watching company has abandoned tours off Ireland’s Atlantic coast and declared the waters an ‘empty, lifeless sea’.
Cork Whale Watch is closing because overfishing of sprat has disrupted the marine food chain & diverted humpback, minke, fin whales & dolphins.
#WhyIsThisAllowedToHappen?

How overfishing has caused shark and ray populations to collapse Sharks and rays are in dire need of conservation action. More than a third of their species are at risk of extinction, as their slow population growth rates make them highly susceptible to fishing pre...

More than a third of Shark and ray species are at risk of extinction. 🦈❌

Overfishing is their primary extinction threat.

saveourseas.com/how-overfish...

‘Nothing left’: Irish whale-watching company closes amid ‘overfishing’ Sprat fishing has disrupted the food chain and diverted humpback, minke and fin whales as well as dolphins

Patrick Murphy of the Irish South & West FPO - who were involved in overturning the ban on large trawlers in the inshore, which resulted in landings of sprat exceeding the scienctific advice by 500% - blames climate change for the collapse in sprat.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

‘Nothing left’: Irish whale-watching company closes amid ‘overfishing’ Sprat fishing has disrupted the food chain and diverted humpback, minke and fin whales as well as dolphins

‘Nothing left’: Irish whale-watching company closes amid ‘overfishing’
Sprat fishing has disrupted the food chain and diverted humpback, minke and fin whales as well as dolphins

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

‘It’s an empty, lifeless sea’: Whales leave Cork waters, putting watchers out of business Stocks of sprat have crashed, forcing whales away, says businessman whose livelihood has been ruined

Ireland ‘It’s an empty, lifeless sea’:
Whales leave Cork waters, as industrial fishing wipes out stocks of sprat that whales feed on, forcing whales away
And Ireland will still not ban Industrial Fishing or protect sprat fish that marine life depend on
www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...

Campaign highlights 'indiscriminate harvesting' of sprat Calls for a ban on inshore fishing by industrial trawlers have become an increasingly divisive issue among coastal communities in counties Cork and Kerry.

I attended meetings with Patrick Murphy and fisheries scientists for years. Patrick knows that sprat landings have been over 500% above sustainable levels. He doesn't care just like he didnt care when he lobbied for Herring to be fished out.
www.rte.ie/news/munster...