FISH LANDINGS IN SCOTLAND IN FEBRUARY 2026

Fish landings in Scotland in February 2026. A note by Tony Mackay, Economist. tony@tonymackay.co.uk

1. The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) have just published their monthly fish landings statistics for the UK for February 2026. The Scottish ones are set out below. The landings are by all UK and foreign vessels.
2. It was a disappointing month for the Scottish fishing industry because there was a big -18% fall in the value of landings and -25% in the tonnage, compared with February 2025.
3. That was worse than the UK totals, which were a -13% fall in value and -21% in tonnage. Scotland accounted for 57% of the UK value and 62% of the tonnage of fish landed.
4. The main reason for the big falls in Scotland was clearly the poor weather during some of February.
5. Only two of the nine Scottish ports/districts recorded increases in value and 7 decreases. The biggest increases were in Kinlochbervie (+19%) and Kirkcudbright (+19%). The biggest declines
were in Peterhead (-26%) and Ullapool (-34%). Peterhead always has a big impact on the monthly statistics.
6. The value per tonne of fish landed averaged £1,920, which was +9.5% higher than in February 2025. However, that average was -8% lower than the UK average of £2,097.
7. There were huge variations in value in Scotland, from £3,347 in Scalloway to £1,233 in Peterhead and £1,108 in Kirkcudbright.
8. Peterhead is by far the busiest fishing port in the UK, accounting for a massive 35% of the total Scottish value and 20% of the total UK value in February. The tonnage shares were 55% of the
Scottish total and 34% of the UK. However, it was a disappointing month for Peterhead because of the bad weather. The value of landings was down -26% and the tonnage down -34%.
9. Scrabster had the second highest value of landings, with £2.6 million. However, that was down – 7% on 2025 and the tonnage was down -25%.
10. Lerwick had the third highest value of landings, with £1.9 million. That was down -9% on 2025 and the tonnage down -13%.
11. Kinlochbervie ranked 4th by value with £1.7 million, which was +19% higher than in the same month of last year. A surprisingly good month for the Sutherland harbour.
12. Fraserburgh ranked 5th with just under £1.6 million, with a -17% fall in value and -5% in tonnage.
13. Ullapool ranked 6th with just under £1.1 million. The -34% fall in value was the worst in the country.
14. Scalloway ranked 7th with £579,000 and Kirkcudbright 8th with £257,000.
15. I shall write a more detailed report on the 2025 annual totals when MMO publish the annual statistics. That will include the statistics for the harbours/districts which make up the “Other
Scotland” category.

Image: ©Fish Focus