Peterhead on course for second year of record landings

Peterhead Port Authority is on course for a second successive record year for the value of fish landed.

By the end of November, catches of pelagic fish, whitefish and shellfish with a gross value of £193.7 million (169,702 tonnes) had been sold through the port, within touching distance of 2017’s record 12-month total of £195.3 million (171,661 tonnes).

The Port’s new whitefish market, which opened for business in June as part of an investment of more than £51 million in infrastructure improvements, had a record week to Friday 14th December, with 38,404 boxes sold.

Peterhead Port Authority chief executive Simon Brebner said: “It has been a phenomenal year for fish landings here at Peterhead, demonstrating the health of commercial stocks out in the North Sea and Atlantic.

“We opened our new, larger-capacity whitefish market in June and gained the gold standard AA quality rating from the British Retail Consortium within three months.

“Remarkably, there have been times when the volume of fish landed has been very close to that capacity.

“There has been a decline in the quantity of shellfish landed over the year, however the value of mackerel has been high compared to last year and more herring has been landed.”

Whitefish volumes to the end of November were up by 1.9% in value (from £116.4 million to £118.7 million) and 6.1% in weight (60,641 to 64,356 tonnes) on 2017.

Mackerel landings for the same period were up 14.8% in value (£48.4 million to £55.6 million) and down 5.8% in weight (58,341 to 54,983 tonnes) on 2017.