Whitefish totalled 10,100 boxes from eleven Scottish trawl and two Anglo longline landings. Scottish efforts continue on the shelf edge, delivering primarily monkfish and haddocks with some squid as a by-catch. One brave boat decided to head for Rockall and experienced some awful weather with winds in excess of 90mph for a while – very glad to say they made it back safely with a decent load of haddocks to show for their efforts. This week with fairer weather on offer, a number of trawlers are planning Rockall in search of haddock which hopefully heralds the start of a busy few months. The Anglo fleet continues to fish further north targeting hake and ling with only the very occasional landing here.
Shellfish has been slightly busier of late. A number of east coast prawn trawlers have been working in the Minch and landing every second night. There has been the usual efforts of the resident prawn fleet and there was a single landing of scallops from south.
Non-fishing activities were as busy as ever and once again dominated by fish farm support vessels, seventeen of which called in for fuel, crew, stores and occasional shelter. In addition, the tug Petrel made two calls for layovers, the industrial suction dredger Causeway called twice for fuel, the Irish pelagic fishing trawlers Laura, Leila and Neptune sheltered from the weather, the MCA tug Ievoli Black came in for fuel, the bulker Aastind discharged 2,000 tonnes of road salt and the landing craft Carly and passenger launch Deborah Leah visited – both tasked with servicing the drilling rig Ocean GreatWhite. The rig has wintered in Kishorn Port where she has been overhauled ready for deployment west of Shetland. Built in 2007 the Ocean GreatWhite is one of the world’s largest ultra-deepwater harsh environment semisubmersible drilling rigs, weighing in at over 60,000 tonnes. Post re-fit, the rig is undertaking sea trials in The Minch before heading north to the oil fields.
Shore Street Project Update
Work continues apace. The main elements of the work which have been ongoing over the past month include rainwater drainage, road crossings, concrete seawall shuttering and pier cap formation.
The stonemasons have started work cladding the new sea wall using local stone sourced from the Corrieshalloch Gorge visitor centre project. With 174m to complete they have a big job in front of them.