UK Fisheries Administrations release 2019 Sea Fisheries Statistics

Figures released by the Fisheries Administrations in the UK has shown that Scotland remains top earning fishing port in the United Kingdom fish landings statistics.

For the month of December 2019, Peterhead stayed the largest fishing port with 3,217 tonnes of fish worth £5.9 million. It was also the largest port for demersal fish landings.

In Scotland, Peterhead is followed by Scrabster with 1,425t worth £2.9m, Fraserburgh with 910t worth £1.9m, Lerwick with 896t worth £1.8m, Mallaig with 688t worth £0.3m, Scalloway and Isles with 502t worth £1.4m, Kinlochbervie with 476t worth £1.4m, Ullapool with 203t worth £0.7m and Cullivoe in the Shetlands with 101t worth £0.3m.

In England, for December the fishing port reporting the largest landings was Plymouth with 1175t worth £1.3m but the most valuable landins were amde in Brixham where 941t earned £3.2m and Newlyn where 1,125t of fish saw £2.1m earned. The next big earners was Shoreham where 485t earned £1m and North Shields, where another £1m worth of sih was landed.

In Northern Ireland, Kilkeel fishing boats landed 166t worth £0.3m whilst their neighbours up the coast in Portavogie caught 73t worth £0.2m.

The total quantity of reported landings by the UK fleet in 2019 was 618,000 tonnes live weight. This is 11% lower than the same period in 2018.

In 2019, the value of the fish sold was £926 million, 6% lower than in 2018.

Most fish catches saw a decrease over the 2019 period with cod, hake and plaice taking the biggest hit in the demersal sector. In pelagic catches mackerel and herring experienced a drop of 24% and 30% respectively.

On the demersal front, whiting saw an increase of 10% but the biggest gains were made in nephrops showed a 34% increase in catches.

With the drop in cod catches, the value per tonne of cod increased 20% from 2018 but the total value lost in the fisheries was -16%, dropping from 56,281 in 2018 to 47,515 in 2019.

In Scotland, 2019 saw 295,744 tonnes of fish landed worth approximately £450.9m. In England total landings were 103,773 tonnes worth approximately £222.5m and in Wales total landings were calculated at 6,583 tonnes worth approximately £11.7m.