16 arrivals for the period.
Whitefish totalled 3,400 boxes from five Scottish trawl landings. As previously noted a number of the Scottish trawl fleet find themselves excluded from fishing west and have returned to the North Sea. Those that remain are still fishing at Rockall for haddocks with the exception of the Banff-registered Endeavour who has been working in Faroese waters for a couple of trips and enjoying excellent returns. The Anglo fleet is largely at home on their summer break with a few starting to return to more northern waters.
Shellfish activity was restricted to seven landings from prawn trawlers combined with the local fleets’ efforts.
Non-fishing business was reasonably quiet. There were three calls from scheduled cruise ships and crew changes for the aquaculture vessel Inter Caledonia and the MCA tug Ievoli Black. Cruise ships Azamara Quest, Europa and Artania all enjoyed successful port calls on dry days; unfortunately, Viking Venus was forced to cancel due to strong winds on the day. Five more cruise ships are due this year and there are currently thirty one calls in the diary for 2023.
Shore Street Project Update
The pre-start meeting has taken place. All the contract paperwork has been signed and the schedule of works has been agreed. The main contractor RJ Mcleod (RJM) has set up their work camp on the pier and will start to take delivery of machinery and materials this week and next with a view to starting on 12th September. The site agent will distribute regular updates on planned works (also displayed on the harbour website) and will be the main point of contact for those wishing to discuss matters. Part of the project will result in the railings along the west end of Shore Street being removed and those with advertising signs may wish to remove them in advance of this. Failing that the contractor will carefully remove all signs and stockpile on the pier for collection when convenient.
Harbour Notice
The waste services industrial action continues with no sign of a well-deserved enhanced pay offer in sight. The harbour handles around 4-6 tonnes of waste weekly from shipping traffic at an annual cost of around £40,000 (most of which is recharged to the customers). In the past UHT has turned a blind eye to the occasional person availing themselves of the harbour waste cages but given the current situation and the cost of waste disposal this practice will no longer be tolerated. The harbour has an extensive network of CCTV cameras and is manned 24/7. Anyone found fly-tipping waste in future will be referred to the local police.