Harbour News 21st October – 15th November (29 arrivals for the period)
Our sincere and heartfelt condolences go to Lesley and Tony who tragically lost their beloved daughter Esther recently. Esther was a key member of the Made in Ullapool team contributing daily to the creation of wonderful candles for all to enjoy. Her passing has come as a shock to us all and out thoughts are with her family, her colleagues at Made in Ullapool and her many friends at this terribly sad time.
Whitefish totalled 3300 boxes from one Scottish trawler, eight Anglo Spanish liners and one Anglo Spanish netter. The Scottish fleet has been absent lately with vessels fishing mainly west of Shetland and Orkney and landing either in Scrabster or Peterhead. The Anglo Spanish liners continue to fish along the western shelf edge targeting high quality hake with a by-catch of ling. The Anglo Spanish netter Brosme has the capacity to process and freeze the catch onboard making landings of mainly monkfish and deepwater crab on average four times a year.
Shellfish landings remain steady with sixteen landings from visiting prawn trawlers, regular weekly landings from two offshore crabbers and weekly landings from the local inshore fleet.
The non-fishing sector was very quiet with only the Marine Scotland research vessel Scotia making a scheduled 24-hour port call. Fishing Rockall and the deepwater edge Scotia was conducting the annual monkfish assessment survey followed by an exploratory skate survey at Barra Head. Early indications would suggest that the monkfish stock seems to be holding its own with above average catches in comparison to previous years’ catch data.
Ferry Infrastructure
The projects are proceeding as planned with final details agreed. Contracts for the pier extension and the new passenger access system (gangway) are due to be signed this week. All works will commence early in 2014 and be completed prior to the arrival of the new ship Loch Seaforth in late July. A public meeting will be held on Monday 25th November at 19:30hrs in the ferry terminal building at which the relevant parties will be on hand to present the developments and answer any questions. See advert for further details; all are welcome.
Tall Ships
Wylde Swan set sail from Amsterdam this morning heading for the Canaries and then across the Atlantic to St Martin. This winter the ship is running a programme of three voyages for youths aged 16+ to undertake routine school lessons with an emphasis on nature & biology whilst sailing the oceans. The trainees are mainly from Holland with all studies being taught in Dutch. The plan for next year is to make it a more international adventure with lessons being taught in English. Get saving – it’s only €5000 for the trip plus flights!
Harbour Calendars
We’re getting lots of enquiries for the Harbour Calendar and expect delivery this week. We hope that once again, you will support our fundraising efforts to enable as many local students as possible undertake these really popular Tall Ship sail training adventures. Keep an eye on the website, our Facebook page and next week’s Ullapool news for details!