39 arrivals for the period
Whitefish totalled 6650 boxes from 3 Scottish and 7 Anglo Spanish landings. The Scottish twin rig trawler Adventurer continues to fish for monkfish and groundfish along the shelf edge reporting very good hauls of quality fish. The Peterhead based trawler Harvest Hope and the Orkney registered Aalskere have both come west to try for haddock at Rockall Bank. Both boats reported decent quality fish and despite the poor weather have headed back to Rockall some 250 miles west of the Butt of Lewis. The seasonal Rockall haddock fishery is a real boost to harbour business with hopefully 8 – 10 weeks of decent landings to come. The Anglo Spanish fleet are starting to reappear with vessels reporting that the traditional hake fishing has been slow to get going this year.
Shellfish effort was slightly up with 13 landings from visiting prawn trawlers, weekly landings from the offshore crabbers and the local prawn fleet working away as weather permits. The Chinese crab market continues to prosper with a number of locals employed to grade and pack the product ready for daily export.
Non-fishing was steady the UK registered Cornelis Vrolijk in to drop off a crewman, the fishfam tank ship Martin Saele in for a layover and the Nitrox and Sally Ann day running to Tanera.
Cornelis Vrolijk built in Holland in 1988 is a pelagic trawler which specialises in catching mid-water species such as mackerel, sardines, blue whiting and herring. At 114 metres in length she is easily the largest fishing vessel in the UK-based fleet and has the ability to process, freeze and package its catch on board. Although the Cornelis Vrolijk sails under a British flag and has Hull as its homeport it is ultimately owned and operated by a Dutch company.
The harbour displays live weather data on the website which allows skippers to look at berthing conditions pre arrival. The weather recording equipment has recently been replaced by a solid state sensor which should prove to be much more accurate especially in extreme weather. The new machine is not yet live but will be up on the website before too long. The data will be shared with a weather company who have a number of harbours on their site including Stornoway https://weatherfile.com/. Another excellent web based forecast with superb graphics and a host of detailed information is available at the following link. https://www.ventusky.com/?p=51.5;-0.1;4&l=wind&t=20170322/12