26 arrivals for the period
Whitefish totalled 8,500 boxes from eight Scottish trawl, six Anglo Spanish longline and one freezer netter landing. Scottish boats returned to sea on the 28 December looking for a big first trip with demand high and fish prices likewise. The boats managed to work away despite very stormy conditions landing decent catches on monkfish and groundfish. More recently the Scottish boats have been catching good quality squid along the shelf edge together with hake and ling. The Anglo fleet worked right through the festive holiday period and braved some horrendous weather landing hake and ling weekly. The freezer netter Eder Sand (pictured) worked an eight week trip at Rockall, landing four lorry loads of processed monkfish and deepwater crab before going straight back out for more of the same. With virtually all species landed so far this year being exported to European markets, who knows what the future holds for fishermen post Brexit.
The shellfish sector was very quiet with a single visiting prawn trawl landing, a scalloper in for repair plus the efforts of the local fleet.
Non-fishing was predominantly fishfarm traffic with Viking Junior in for repairs, Anne E, Emma C, Rual Na Gail, and Shjandur in for shelter and Inter Caledonia in for fuel and a crew change. The MCA chartered emergency tug Ievoli Black called in for a crew change, fuel and stores.