12 arrivals for the period
Whitefish totalled 7,300 boxes from two Scottish trawl landings plus a single landing from an Anglo- Spanish freezer netter. The Audacious BF83 kept an eye on the forecast and made a late season trip to Rockall for haddocks and monkfish and the Beryl BF440 landed a very good shot of groundfish from the shelf edge. The Anglo freezer netter Eder Sands landed a boatload of processed monkfish from deepwater grounds after an eight-week voyage.
Shellfish was restricted to the efforts of the local creel fleet with most trawlers working away from the port at the moment. The China live crab export market came to grinding halt – all UK exports have been banned for the time being. The basis for this is apparently the cadmium levels in the brown crab have increased although the more likely view is the ban is politically driven.
Non-fishing was mainly fish farm-based; tugs Sally Ann and Carhie Ann were day running, landing craft Ossian called in for supplies and the MCA tug Ievoli Black called in for fuel and a crew change.
The harbour was very sad to hear of the passing of local man Malcolm Douglas. Malcolm worked on the pier for Caley Oils and latterly Northern Oils and was great fun to be around. A glass half-full, always cheery character, he will be greatly missed. Our thoughts are with his family at this very sad time.