New campaign encourages fishermen to land catch in Shetland
A NEW campaign has been launched promoting the benefits of fishing boats landing their catch in Shetland.
Lerwick Port Authority and Shetland Islands Council – who run markets in Lerwick and Scalloway respectively – are behind the project.
They said there are “clearly significant cost and carbon footprint savings” from landing in Shetland.
More than half of all the fish landed in the UK comes from within 100 nautical miles of Shetland.
The two fish markets in Shetland are relatively new, with both launching in 2020.
The Lerwick market offers fishing boats working to the east of Shetland a convenient opportunity to land their catch, while Scalloway suits the west.
Almost 340,000 boxes of whitefish were landed in Shetland last year, a slight dip on 2021 figures.
The lower than expected figures were partly attributed to the energy crisis, which forced many boats to tie up for a period of time, as well as a poor cod quota.
Lerwick Port Authority chief executive Captain Calum Grains said: “At the centre of prolific fishing grounds, Shetland has clear advantages for the catching sector in landing here.
“With better times in prospect, it is important to remind the industry of the benefits of using our state-of-the-art markets which also reflect our commitment to its future.”
Meanwhile chairman of the council’s harbour board Robert Thomson said: “The modern fish markets at Lerwick and Scalloway now offer fishing vessels a commercially attractive location to land their catches.
“Land in Shetland and you’ll save time and fuel; the electronic auction means that you can achieve excellent prices too.”
The Land in Shetland campaign is also releasing a series of videos, with the first one featuring Andrew Bremner, the skipper of the Wick-registered seine net vessel Boy Andrew.
He said buyers – particularly on the continent – know that fresh fish can be picked up from Shetland’s two markets.
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When fish is brought into the markets, they are arranged into specific floor areas. Fish boxes typically weigh 30kg to 45kg depending on the species landed.
Certain species of fish are then weighed and graded.
After that the fish is viewed by a qualified third party to monitor the quality and size grading. An auction catalogue is then created and can be viewed.
Come auction time, which is usually 8am, buyers are then given the chance to place bids.
Following the sale all boxes are consolidated and put onto pallets, shrink wrapped and loaded into chilled road containers for transportation to the mainland, collected for processing in Shetland or the local market.
Fish for destined for the UK mainland or Europe travels on the overnight ferry from Lerwick to Aberdeen.
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