Harbour News 6–20 August 2019

12 arrivals for the period

Whitefish totalled 800 boxes from a single Scottish trawl landing. The spring and summer Rockall haddock bonanza is over for the time being and boats are heading east for refits and paint jobs. There’s plenty of remaining quota so hopefully the fleet will return in the autumn for more of the same. The Anglo fleet remains in the north landing primarily into Lerwick.

The shellfish sector was restricted to the efforts of the local inshore fleet who report reasonable catches.

Non-fishing activity was a mixed bag; the harbour had scheduled cruise visits from Viking Sun, Variety Voyager and Black Watch, the fish-farm tank ship Inter Caledonia called in for a maintenance visit, the service tug Shjandur carried out day running for the local fish-farms and there were two visits from offshore supply vessel Nautilus (pictured) for fuel and a crew change. Nautilus, registered in Spain was built in 2001 and is currently working northwest of Cape Wrath laying fibre optic telecom cables using an ROV. Hopefully the vessel will be regular visitor to the harbour over the coming weeks.

Public consultation launched on NTS2 for Scotland

A new public consultation is underway to examine plans for the next twenty years of transport network development in Scotland. The National Transport Strategy (NTS2) for Scotland was developed in collaboration with more than sixty partners and aims to develop zero-emission transport infrastructure by 2045.

The harbour is hosting two drop-in sessions with Transport Scotland on Thursday 29 August upstairs in the ferry terminal waiting room.  There are two sessions – in the morning from 8:00am to 10:00am and later from 4:00pm to 6:00pm.  All are welcome.

The harbour has highlighted the appalling traffic gridlock endured in Ullapool at peak times, especially along Shore Street. Your support in driving this message home would be much appreciated.