63 arrivals for the period
Whitefish totalled a staggering 35,000 boxes from nineteen Scottish trawl landings, six Anglo long-line vessels and four Anglo deep-water freezer netters. The Scottish trawl fleet has had a fruitful time fishing for haddocks at Rockall with full boats landing every 8-10 days. The fish are due to spawn soon which brings to and end this year’s spring fishery. The post-spawning poor condition fish are of little value and will be left in peace for a few months to fatten up. Despite the large volumes of haddock landed market prices have remained strong and the fleet will return to this fishery in the summer months. The Anglo fleet continues to have mixed fortunes. The longline fleet has struggled all year to find enough hake, whilst the freezer netters continue to land big shots of processed monkfish and crab from the deep-water edge.
Shellfish effort was steady with twenty landings from visiting prawn trawlers together with the local fleet. Prawn catches have been very good this year with some skippers having their best returns for over thirty years.
The non-fishing sector was fairly busy with eight fish farm arrivals; Paul B, Artic Sea Service, Inter Caledonia, Viking Atlantic and Viking Gripfisk combined with passenger vessel Marco Polo, Tall Ship Tecla, MCA tug Ievoli Black and the pelagic trawler Altaire. Cruise liner Marco Polo was due to visit Stornoway with 950 British tourists on-board, but due to strong SE winds decided to visit Ullapool at very short notice. The passengers all came ashore and enjoyed a bright, dry and sunny day in the village returning to the ship in very good spirits.
Dutch ketch Tecla made a very welcome return to the village this week after wintering in Den Helder. The skipper and crew are preparing for a year-long adventure. They intend to initially undertake a couple of return trips to St Kilda before heading off on the trip of a lifetime, setting sail on the 1st June 2019 for Orkney, Shetland, Faroe, Iceland, Greenland, Northwest Passage, North and South America, Antarctic, Falklands, St Helena, Ascension Island, Azores, mainland Europe before returning to Ullapool on the 16th June 2020. Check out the website for more information on these amazing voyages. https://www.tecla-sailing.com/
Well done to Welcome Ullapool for their recent funding success and many thanks to all that voted for the cause.