144 arrivals for the period
Whitefish totalled 14,500 boxes from ten Scottish trawlers, two Anglo long-liners and two Anglo freezer netters. Scottish effort west has dwindled in recent weeks as the boats head home for their annual repairs and paint jobs. A handful of skippers continue to try their luck at Rockall with plenty bulk of small haddocks still available. Hopefully a few boats will turn their attention to monkfish and groundfish along the shelf edge in the coming months. The Anglo long-line fleet tends to land in Ullapool on their way home to Spain or France, the main fishing effort remains in the north. The freezer netters make occasional landings after approximately two months at sea targeting monkfish which is processed and frozen on-board.
Shellfish continues apace with seventy landings from visiting prawn trawlers, four landing of scallops all combining with the efforts of the resident inshore fleet. Prawn catches this year have in the main been very good although in recent days boats are starting to head east to the North Sea fishery.
Non-fishing saw fifty-seven arrivals, of which aquaculture (forty-two) accounted for the lion’s share. Seven cruise ships made scheduled calls with only one cancellation due to a poor forecast which ironically never materialised. The Flying Dutchman tall ship returned from her Shetland voyage and headed south with new guests, the dive vessel Honeydew was involved in a citizen science project locally, superyacht Avanti called in for fuel and the survey vessels Sentinel and Situla were day- running to the Summer Isles.
The Harbour Community Fund was approached by Val Bryan with a view to contributing towards the production of a book of Andy Mitchell’s songs. Andy lived in Ullapool from 1975 until the early 2000s working on maintaining and repairing electronics on fishing boats. A keen and close observer of the character and quirks of those he met through his work, he wrote songs which captured the essence of the people, the issues, and the events of the time. He became a highly sought-after and entertaining performer, with famously popular songs about local places such as Achiltibuie (“The Buffalo Farm”). In Ullapool he was a founder member of the Folk Club and also of the local Radio Station, Lochbroom FM. The Harbour Trustees were delighted to be given the opportunity to contribute to such a fantastic project and very much thank both Val for bringing it to our attention and her amazing team of volunteers for their hard work in pulling it all together. Well done what an amazing effort.