FISH LANDINGS IN SCOTLAND IN OCTOBER 2025

Fish landings in Scotland in October 2025. 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 October 2025. The Scottish ones are set out below. The landings are by all UK and foreign vessels.
2. Overall, the value of fish landings in Scotland was £76.7 million, which was -11% lower than in October 2024. There was a -21% fall in tonnage to 39,783. A very disappointing month, therefore.
3. However, that was a little better than the UK totals, which were a -14% fall in value and a -22% fall in tonnage. Scotland accounted for 74% of the UK value and 78% of the tonnage of fish landed.
4. The value per tonne of fish landed in Scotland rose by +13% to £1,929 from £1,705 a year ago. The value was -5% lower than the UK average.
5. Only three of the nine Scottish ports/districts recorded increases in value and 6 falls. Only 2 recorded rises in tonnage and 7 declines. The value increases were in Cullivoe (+40%), Scalloway
(+26%) and Fraserburgh (+8%). The worst declines were in Other Scotland (-41%), Scrabster (-32%) and Ullapool (-23%). The tonnage increases were in Scalloway (+34%) and Cullivoe (+29%); and the worst declines in Ullapool (-43%) and Kinlochbervie (-33%).
6. Peterhead is by far the busiest fishing port in the UK, accounting for a massive 55% of the total Scottish value and 41% of the total UK value in October. The tonnage shares were 58% of the
Scottish total and 45% of the UK. The port had a disappointing October, however, with a -6% fall in the value and -21% in the tonnage. Those falls had big impacts on the Scottish totals.
7. Fraserburgh is the third busiest fishing harbour in Scotland and had a good month, with the value of landings +8% higher but the tonnage -10% lower.
8. It was a bad month for Scrabster, which has experienced a significant decline in fish landings so far this year. The October £2.0 million value of landings was -32% lower than in 2024 and the
tonnage was -26% lower.
9. It was a disappointing month for Lerwick, where the value of landings was down -8% to £20.5 million and the tonnage down -23% to 10,461.
10. The other Shetland ports Scalloway and Cullivoe had good months, with big increases in both the value and tonnage of landings. However, they account for tiny shares of the Scottish totals.
11. Kinlochbervie had a bad month, with a -13% fall in value and -33% in tonnage.
12. Ullapool also had a bad month, with the value of landings down -23% and tonnage down -43%.
13. The “Other Scotland” harbours and ports reported a huge -41% fall in value to £5.2 million and a -13% fall in tonnage to 2,669. I hope to publish some statistics soon on the various harbours which comprise “Other Scotland” when MMO make those available.
14. I have added the monthly statistics for the first 10 months of 2025 from January to October. The overall total values of the fish landings for each port/harbour are:
15. The total value of fish landings in the 10 months to October was just over £463 million, which was -0.7% lower than in the same period of 2024.
16. Peterhead has accounted for 46.7% of the total, which is not surprising. Lerwick has accounted for 17.0%.
17. The rankings of the % changes are:
18. There are big geographical variations, as there usually are for the monthly statistics, like in October. The largest ports of Peterhead and Lerwick have done well in 2025. That is in marked
contrast with Scrabster and the Other Scotland harbours/ports.

Image: ©Fish Focus