48 arrivals for the period.
Whitefish totalled 18,600 boxes from 9 Scottish trawlers, 17 Anglo Spanish long liners and 2 Anglo gill netters. The Scottish trawlers have returned to the west and continue to fish at Rockall for haddock/squid and the Shelf Edge for monkfish and mixed groundfish. The boats report good quality haddock at Rockall but poor squid numbers.Those targeting the Shelf Edge report unprecedented monkfish catches this year with one vessel reporting a seventy box haul of monks for a four hour tow. The Anglo line fishers continue to land full boats of hake and ling weekly and the offshore freezer netters are also experiencing very good monkfish catches.
Shellfish has been extremely quiet with poor catches in all sectors although there was some improvement in the prawn landings at the end of last week.
Non-fishing was fairly busy withcruise ships Artania, Hebridean Princess, Deutschland and Bremen all making return visits to Ullapool in reasonable weather. The Shetland pelagic trawler Altairereturned from the mackerel egg survey and the Marine Scotland owned research vessel Alba Na Maracalled in for equipment and a crew change. The Serco owned dive support barge Moorfowl was day running on MOD diver training, and the Northern Lighthouse Ship Pharos made a couple of calls to change personnel.
Harbour Projects are going well with the Wee Pier 16.5m length extension completed and the beach reinstated. The contractors will tidy the site demobilise equipment and prepare the newly reclaimed areas for tarring on Monday 25th June which should see the project to its conclusion. The Men’s Shed and Changing Place Toilet have had the underfloor heating installed and all being well the fit out will be completed in mid-July. Likewise the new shellfish store and landing derrick on the pier are both virtually complete and should be fully operational by mid-July.