34 Arrivals for the Period
Whitefish totalled 5,500 boxes from four Scottish trawl landings and eight Anglo-Spanish liner/netters. The Inverness-registered Adventurer returned to work on 27 December and landed three lorryloads of monkfish, ling and haddocks for the New Year trip; they followed this up with two further landings of quality groundfish from the Shelf Edge.
The brand new Kinlochbervie-based trawler Sparkling Star UL 290 landed 260 boxes of top quality goundfish from waters west of the Butt of Lewis. Built by Parkol Marine in Whitby for Durness skipper James Corbett, the 20m vessel was launched at the end of November. Congratulations and best wishes from all at the harbour to Skipper Corbett and his crew. Kinliochbervie fish market is undergoing a four-month long refurbishment and it is hoped that displaced fishing vessels will use Ullapool to land their catches. Finally, the Anglo-Spanish fleet has returned from fishing north with several vessels landing good shots of hake and ling in the past few weeks.
Shellfish has been quiet. The local fleet works away as weather permits. The harbour has had three visits from Gairloch-based prawn trawlers. The Oban-registered scallop dredgers Star of Jura and Rois Mhari both landed a few bags of clams from local waters.
Local shellfish entrepreneurs Heddle Costie and Josh Talbot took delivery of another creel fishing boat Bon Ami UL 77 which was previously based in Jersey. The new vessel arrived by lorry and was lifted in on Friday morning in wintery conditions. Congratulations and best wishes from all at the harbour to Skippers Talbot and Costie.
Non-fishing was fairly quiet with a few Irish pelagic vessels came in for fuel, the fish farm support vessel Tie Venture day-running and the NLB support ship Pole Star in for a crew change.
Harbour projects are slowly moving in the right direction. The Changing Place accessibility toilet received a welcome boost with a successful application for 50% funding from Transport Scotland and a further contribution from Calmac Ferries Ltd. The works are currently at the planning, building warrant and tender stage with work scheduled to start in March.
The Wee Jetty rebuild awaits confirmation of a Marine Licence which should come any week now. The project has been awarded to Lochshell Engineering and work is scheduled to start in early March. Many thanks to the sailing and skiff clubs for relocating their vessels and activities for the duration of the works.