Harbour News

The harbour has been fairly busy over the past fortnight with 32 arrivals for the period.

Whitefish landings totaled 4800 boxes from 5 Scottish trawlers, 3 Spanish freshers and a Spanish freezer.  The Scottish vessels Arkh Angell, Viking Monarch and Ocean Venture (of trawlerman fame) made good landings of squid from Rockall, the Marigold landed a decent shot of groundfish from the shelf edge and the Audacious in for crane repair landed a small shot of haddies.  The Spanish fresh vessels Cantara, Jimny and Symphonie continue to land good catches of hake, whilst the large freezer vessel Bruix landed 60 tonnes of processed monkfish for export.  Unfortunately there are stiff times ahead for the Scottish fleet as both quota and days at sea are running out fast for the whitefish sector both east and west.

Some sectors of the shellfish fleet continue to struggle, crab prices remain very low and the local prawn fleet report pathetic catches for the time of year.  Conversely the scallop dredgers Star of Annan and Golden Promise landed 160 bags of good quality clams from local waters.

Non fishing traffic saw the MCA tug Anglian Prince in for fuel, a fire exercise and a crew change.  The tug lost propulsion whilst approaching the pier due to gear box linkage issues, thankfully the anchor was successfully deployed and after 6 hours frantic repair work the vessel eventually berthed alongside.  The Marine Scotland fleet of Alba Na Mara and Scotia both spent 24 hours alongside for weather and a crew change respectively. In conjunction with the multi national naval exercise currently underway in the Minch, a fleet of Smit naval support vessels have been tying up nightly for the past week.

Ullapool has been chosen as a Cruise in Company port for Tallships 2011, the main driver for these events is to allow young people aged 15-25 years the opportunity to participate in the voyages.  In order to mark Ullapool’s card there will be opportunities for interested parties to participate in the 2010 race from Kristansand to Hartlepool as a precursor to the 2011 event. Should you wish to register an interest check out the sail training website www.sailtraininginternational.org and contact the harbour office to discuss further.