Harbour News 25 August–14 September 2020

26 arrivals for the period

Ullapool Harbour Trust continues to operate during the Covid-19 pandemic; we are supporting vital transport links to the Western Isles and handling routine fishing and commercial traffic. Harbour services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and we can be contacted by phone, email and VHF.  We are observing strict social distancing and hygiene measures.   

The ferry is now running to the summer timetable with an additional Sunday morning voyage making twenty return sailings every seven days. Passenger numbers are limited to 330 per sailing and advance booking is mandatory for all travellers.

Whitefish landings totalled 7,500 boxes from eight Scottish trawl and two Anglo long-line landings. The Scottish fleet continues to work on the Shelf Edge and Rockall for haddocks and monkfish and catches are still holding up. Most of the boats hope to see out the rest of the month and then head back east for the winter. Anglo effort was restricted to the Brisan landing fresh line-caught hake and ling weekly.

The shellfish sector was slightly busier than it has been of late; eight prawn trawlers, two scallop dredgers and an offshore crab creel vessel landed reasonable catches combined with the efforts of the local fleet.

Non-fishing consisted of the fish farm vessels Inter Caledonia and Fox Challenger who came in for a crew change and layover respectively.  The MCA tug Ievoli Black towed in the reefer Alma (pictured) who was experiencing main engine problems.  Alma, a refrigerated cargo ship, suffered oil pressure issues west of Kinlochbervie on Saturday evening. Emergency tug Ievoli Black was sent to the vessel and established a towing connection before delivering the vessel to Lochbroom. Alma is currently at anchor in the loch while engineers work out the best solution to get the ship back up and running.