30 arrivals for the period
Whitefish continues to be fairly busy; 11,500 boxes were landed from eight Scottish trawl, eight Anglo Spanish/French longliners and a single landing from a Spanish freezer netter. The Scottish boats continue to mainly work out of Rockall for haddock, monkfish and more recently – squid with reasonable returns for their efforts. Fish prices remain high and combined with a spell of settled weather the boats are doing well. The Anglo fleet is fishing its usual deepwater grounds west of Lewis for hake and ling mostly. Some of the boats are now heading home for their summer break.
Activity in the shellfish sector remains very quiet and a single prawn trawl landing combined with the efforts of the local fleet. There are signs that prawn fishing activity is picking up but conversely crab and lobster fishing has been well down on previous years.
Non-fishing once again predominantly consisted of fish-farm vessels together with a couple of tall ships arrivals. The large tank ships Ronjafisk, Inter Caledonia and Aqua Skye called in for their monthly crew change, fuel and stores, the treatment vessel Guard Supplier came in for fuel and the salmon harvest vessel Viking Saga made multiple visits collecting ice and landing fish for processing. Tall ship Bessie Ellen built in 1904 and one of Britain’s last wooden coasting ketches still under sail is operating three adventure voyages out of Ullapool throughout July. The square rigger Pelican of London, built in 1948, made a surprise three-day visit. Both vessels are taking groups of passengers round the Hebrides and Northern Isles in the coming weeks. On Friday 9th July the Fred Olsen cruise ship Borealis cruised up the loch and through the narrows on a site-seeing voyage from Liverpool. It’s great to see these beautiful ships back working after such a long period of inactivity.
Waterfront Project Marine licence paperwork has been submitted to Marine Scotland and the consultants are pulling together the final elements of the planning application for submission in the coming days. Following the three public consultation events the architects have worked through several hundred comments and pulled together a very basic uncluttered design for the promenade. The basic design consists of a palette of natural products including recycled timber and the use of an absolute minimum of concrete. A detailed design will be worked on over the coming months. Plans and information will be shared on the Ullapool Harbour website. http://www.ullapool-harbour.co.uk/harbour-developments/