85 arrivals for the period
Whitefish totalled 7,400 boxes from five Scottish trawl, two Anglo long-liners and one freezer netter landing. As has been the trend in recent months the Scottish fleet has remained north and east with only two vessels fishing west and landing here. There are a number of factors influencing Scottish fishing effort in 2024 not least quota allowances, poor prices for smaller fish and high prices for fuel. Next year the haddock quota for Rockall has been increased seven-fold based on very successful recruitment to the stock. On paper, this sounds positive but in reality the market could be swamped with small fish fetching very poor prices. The Anglo fleet has also been an infrequent visitor this year with vessels tending to land their catches in Scrabster.
Shellfish has been a much more positive sector. There were forty-three landing from visiting prawn trawlers, a single landing from a scallop dredger which combined with the resident fleet’s prawn and lobster catches.
Non-fishing was also fairly busy and there were thirty-three vessel arrivals. The aquaculture sector predominated with twenty-one support vessels calling on for fuel, crew and stores. Cruise liners accounted for four scheduled arrivals, given the growth in the cruise sector the harbour plans to replace the marquee and portable toilets with a smart serviced reception building this winter. Completion is scheduled for April 2025 – in time for the first ship of the season. In addition the Swedish tall ship Gunilla called in for a two-day layover, the MCA tug Ievoli Black visited for fuel and the civilian/MOD barge Moorfowl carried out day running on RN diver training.
Survey vessels Mintaka, Morven and Sir John Murray called in for equipment and crew changes; they form part of the advance planning team looking to identify the optimal route for the new electrical cable connection between Lewis and the mainland for SSE. The Western Isles HVDC Link will involve creating a new HVDC converter station and AC substation near Stornoway with around 81km of HVDC Subsea cable between the Isle of Lewis and Dundonnell on the Scottish mainland followed by around 80km of onshore underground HVDC cable to a HVDC converter station near Beauly. The project is still in the early stages of development and is subject to further consultation with the local community and other key stakeholders. Project teams anticipate the Western Isles HVDC Link will be completed by 2030. This is an exciting development which will certainly benefit Ullapool Harbour during the development and construction phases.