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Marine Scotland hasincreased their number of boardings at sea as COVID19 eases
Marine Scotland has conducted more Boardings at Sea during the first five month of 2021 than they did during the same period in 2020.
In January and February 2020, Marine Scotland had conducted a total of 31 Boardings at Sea and in March the total was recorded as being ten boardings. Surprisingly in January 2020, the only vessels boarded were sixteen UK registered vessels, eleven in February and seven in March. They remainder consisted of three boardings of Irish-registered vessels and three Norwegian vessels.
There are no recorded boardings for April and May due to the COVID19 pandemic.
From January to the end of May 2021, Marine Scotland has made 122 boardings. UK registered vessels still remain the highest proportions of boarding with 82 boats being inspected at sea.
In January, seven Irish vessels were boarded and in May a further four were recorded. After UK registered vessels, France id the next highest number with 11 boarding, followed by Denmark. Just four Spanish vessels have been boarded and those occurred in the months of April and May.
The results were released by Fisheries Minister, Mairi Gougeon from a question lodged by Edward Mountain (Highlands and Islands) of the Conservative and Unionist Party who asked how many fishing vessels have been boarded for inspection by Marine Scotland in each month between (a) January and May 2020, and (b) January and May 2021, broken down by the nationality of the vessel.
Boarding inspections in Port can only be conducted if a vessel lands in a Scottish Port. Therefore this largely depends on what vessels land in Scottish ports.
The following table is a breakdown of Boarding inspections in port by Month (January to May) in 2020 and 2021, by nationality.
Boardings in Port |
Boardings in Port |
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| 2020 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | 2021 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | |
| DNK | 2 | 1 | DNK | 1 | ||||||||
| ESP | 6 | 2 | 1 | ESP | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| FRA | 5 | 6 | 5 | FRA | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| FRO | 3 | GBR | 51 | 18 | 33 | 31 | 39 | |||||
| GBR | 116 | 94 | 54 | |||||||||
| NOR | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | |||
| UK | 87% | 91% | 87% | 0% | 0% | UK | 100.0% | 90.0% | 100.0% | 91.2% | 92.9% | |
| Non UK | 13% | 9% | 13% | 0% | 0% | Non UK | 0.0% | 10.0% | 0.0% | 8.8% | 7.1% | |
Landings |
|
Landings |
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| 2020 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | 2021 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | |
| Denmark | 2 | England | 62 | 56 | 56 | 65 | 72 | |||||
| England | 79 | 63 | 88 | 37 | 61 | France | 3 | 17 | 33 | 24 | 24 | |
| France | 20 | 29 | 37 | 25 | 37 | Germany | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Germany | 1 | 1 | 2 | Guernsey | 1 | |||||||
| Ireland | 2 | Isle of Man | 1 | 6 | 4 | 3 | ||||||
| Isle of Man | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 7 | Northern Ireland | 11 | 3 | 19 | 9 | 9 | |
| Northern Ireland | 12 | 1 | 3 | 2 | Norway | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Norway | 5 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 2 | Scotland | 3442 | 2571 | 3848 | 3550 | 2297 | |
| Scotland | 3334 | 3132 | 3266 | 2045 | 3443 | Spain | 11 | 15 | 18 | 28 | ||
| Spain | 14 | 13 | 25 | 29 | 32 | Wales | 1 | |||||
| Wales | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | |||
| UK | 98.8% | 98.4% | 97.9% | 97.1% | 97.8% | UK | 99.9% | 98.7% | 98.8% | 98.7% | 97.6% | |
| Non UK | 1.2% | 1.6% | 2.1% | 2.9% | 2.2% | Non UK | 0.1% | 1.3% | 1.2% | 1.3% | 2.4% | |
The following table is a breakdown of Boarding inspections at sea, by nationality for the periods January to May 2020 and 2021.
It is worth noting that on any given day the UK fishing fleet accounts for approximately 80% of vessels actively fishing in Scottish waters. It would therefore be reasonable to expect that 80% of our boarding inspections during any given period would be on UK vessels and the remaining 20% being foreign vessels.
As we work a risk based approach, our boardings will not always reflect nationality. Our boarding statistics indicate that 70% of our boardings are UK vessels, with the remaining 30% being foreign vessels, which would be proportionate to the fleet sizes.
Boardings at Sea |
Boardings at Sea |
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| 2020 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | 2021 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | |
| DEU | DEU | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||
| DNK | DNK | 4 | 2 | 3 | ||||||||
| ESP | ESP | 1 | 3 | |||||||||
| FRA | 1 | FRA | 1 | 5 | 5 | |||||||
| GBR | 16 | 11 | 7 | GBR | 7 | 13 | 25 | 37 | ||||
| IRL | 3 | IRL | 7 | 4 | ||||||||
| NLD | NLD | 1 | ||||||||||
| NOR | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | |||
| UK | 100% | 73% | 70% | 0% | 0% | UK | 0% | 88% | 87% | 68% | 76% | |
| Non UK | 0% | 27% | 30% | 0% | 0% | Non UK | 100% | 13% | 13% | 32% | 24% | |
Please note, Covid restrictions were applicable from April 2020 and continue to be applicable now.
Mitigations have been put in place to allow boarding inspections to take place where safe to do so.
