The visiting fishing vessels continued to land throughout April and May, so it’s been a good start to this year in terms of shellfish in particular. White fish remains a much lower proportion of landings than it might have been historically, and although the trend is still downwards in general, there are some grounds for optimism. The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation have recently published a report into Industry Trends and Attitudes, which includes consideration of the wider impact of fishing to our coastal communities alongside the environmental impacts, and the advances in technology within the industry. It ends with a plea to political parties, and those standing for election to:
- Take time to understand the detail and nuance of the Scottish fishing industry and our complex marine systems.
- Champion the nutritious, sustainable, climate-smart food that it produces
- Support fishing being properly protected in our increasingly crowded seas – striking the right balance between conservation and sustainable harvesting, and ensuring that we have food security as well as energy security.
- Recognise that Scotland’s fishing sector is an important part of how we reach net zero
- Commit to working with us (Scottish Fishermen’s Federation), as we collectively seek to secure all our futures.
You can access the full report from the news page of their website – https://www.sff.co.uk/news/.
Hopefully we have seen the last of the disruption to ferry services for the moment. The Coruisk has returned from supporting services on the Isle of Mull while their ferry provided additional capacity for Féis Ile, and there are no further proposed redeployments for the moment. However, we have been discussing with community representatives on Skye the idea of reinvigorating the ‘Sound of Sleat Transport Forum’ or something similar so that there is a united voice from our communities to respond to consultations and proposed redeployments. If anyone locally would be interested in being part of a ’Ferry Users Group’ or similar, then please get in touch with me and I can keep you informed. It’s likely that this will not happen until the end of the summer season.
The tenders have been returned for the overnight ferry berth, and some additional investigative work will have been undertaken by the time you read this.
I mentioned last month that the Marina had a fairly quiet start to its re-opening, but things have picked up since then, and we have already had a few nights where we have been at full capacity. The moorings and anchor chains have been replaced where necessary and the works to replace planks are ongoing. We have welcomed the Eda Fransden back for her first couple of trips this season, so it feels like the season is in full swing already! Some of you may be aware that the Ocean Clipper Race is coming to Oban between the 12th and 21st July. We are already aware of one group who are coming to Mallaig for the weekend as a result of being displaced from Oban at this time, and we are expecting to be very busy throughout this week, so we may not be able to accommodate passing yacht traffic to the same extent as normal.
We had a good day of weather for the RNLI Gala day on 25th May, and the Northern Lighthouse vessel ‘Pole Star’ was a huge attraction on the day. Cameron MacDonald kindly shared these drone photos with us, and the view from the Bridge looking back to the Harbour on the day gave a totally different perspective. It was a great day overall and between takings on the day and donations received, over £6,800 was raised for the RNLI locally, not including the takings from the RNLI shop stall on the day, which took in a further £1,200.
Proposed changes to parking restrictions in The Highland Council car parks – West Bay in particular, have led to lots of recent enquiries about parking on and around the Harbour. At the moment, all our permit spaces are allocated and we have a waiting list of around 30 people, many of whom have been on the list for several years. We do go through the list annually and re-allocate spaces where possible, but turnover is very low. We have no plans to create any additional parking – in fact it’s more likely that spaces will be reduced as development takes place, so we would encourage Community Councils and other community organisations to make their voices heard with The Highland Council.
Our AGM is on 14th June, and the focus this year is the Economic Impact Assessment undertaken on our behalf by MKA Economics. We’re grateful to everyone who participated in the process, sharing their time and information to make the final document as comprehensive as it is. The intention behind the Economic Impact Assessment is to have evidence to support future funding applications for developments around the Harbour, and the headline numbers from the final report are impressive. Rather than a wordy description, we have captured these into some key facts about the Harbour, which are included here.
Jacqueline McDonell
