Fisheries Statistics Published
More fish were landed in Shetland in 2015 than in all of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and one third of all the fish and shellfish caught in British waters were caught around Shetland.
Those are among the findings of an analysis of official fisheries statistics by Dr Ian Napier of the NAFC Marine Centre UHI.
The analysis found that 72,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish worth some £61 million were landed in Shetland in 2015. That included about 16,000 tonnes of whitefish (such as haddock, cod, monks and plaice) worth £26 million, 54,000 tonnes of pelagic fish (such as mackerel and herring) worth £31 million, and 1,900 tonnes of shellfish (such as crabs, lobsters and scallops) worth £4 million.
That represents almost one quarter of all the fish and shellfish landed in Scotland, and 16% of all landings in the UK, with more landed in Shetland than in any other port in the UK, except Peterhead.
Dr Napier also estimated that European Union fishing boats (including UK boats) caught about 450,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish worth more than £300 million in the waters around Shetland, a third of the total catch in UK waters. Of that an estimated 260,000 tonnes worth £200 million were caught within 50 miles of Shetland quarter of the total catch in UK waters.
The full report Shetland Fisheries Statistics 2015 and a summary Shetland Fishing Facts 2015 are available at www.nafc.uhi.ac.uk/fish-stats