Özet:

The purpose of this study was to investigate comparatively the sprat ( Sprattus sprattus) fisheries in the whole of the Black Sea and in the Turkish coast of the Black Sea. With this aim, the prior studies on the sprat fisheries conducted from 1970 to recent years in the Black Sea and Turkish coast of Turkey were examined. Especially changes in annual catch amounts and on likely reasons were focused. As a result of evaluating the obtained data, necessary precautions for sustainable fisheries were determined and solution proposals have been presented. Sprat is the second most caught fish species in recent years and an important raw material resource for fish flour and fish oil industry. Especially in the Samsun coast of Turkey, this is target species for commercial pelagic trawl fisheries. Sprat has been caught by Georgia, Russia Federation, Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria from the Black Sea since the beginning of 1970s. In Turkey, the first sprat fishing started in 1993 and increased gradually until 2007. Sprat catch increased rapidly from 2008 to 2011 and reached 87.141 tons in 2011 after which a sharp decline occurred (12.092 tons in 2012 and 9.764 tons in 2013). Then, it increased again and reached 41.648 tons in 2014 and 76.996 tons in 2015. Trend of annual catch values showed that there is no stability in the stock of this species in Turkish waters of the Black Sea.

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