STEADY FISHING FOR SHETLAND WHITEFISH FLEET

Steady fishing for Shetland whitefish fleet. The Shetland whitefish fleet is looking forward to a good second half to the year, with landings expected to pick up over the next few months.

Brian Isbister, chief executive of the Shetland Fish Producers’ Organisation told Fish Focus:

“The whitefish story for 2024 is a reasonably good one but landings during the first six months have been back on last year.  There have been a number of reasons for this, including weather disruption, particularly to the ferry service over the winter period together with ongoing ferry capacity problems.

“The loss of the trawler ‘Opportune’ LK209 early in the year, coupled with a number of lengthy breakdowns across the fleet has also contributed significantly to landings being below what we might have anticipated. This situation is however expected to improve during the second half of the year.

“The market remains positive with the usual range of species prominent in members’ catches.  Although quota restraint continues to be a problem for some stocks, primarily ling and monkfish for certain vessels, the slower early year fishery leaves quota to be caught during the second half of this year.”

There are 22 vessels in the Shetland large vessel whitefish fleet, which has demonstrated its long-term vision in recent years by a generational shift of young fishermen taking ownership of vessels. For example, the old Copious was renamed as Brighter Hope (LK98), the Sedulous is now Comrades (LK308), and the owners of the Defiant (LK371) have retired and passed ownership to a young crew from Whalsay.

Meanwhile, the Shetland industry is working hard to contribute to scientific catch advice. The Shetland Fishermen’s Association was a founder member of the Northern Fishing Alliance, which brings together industry representatives, scientists and fishermen from Norway, EU member states and the UK to combine expertise and identify solutions on specific shared issues. Its work extends from initiatives to improve scientific assessments and catch advice for species such as North Sea cod to the impact of offshore wind on fishing; and its success to date confirms the value of international collaboration on the problems that affect fishermen everywhere.