October seems to have passed by very quickly, possibly because I had ten days off work, and a week in the sun! The flip side is that I have returned to winter, and the first named storm of the season, Storm Ashley on Sunday 20th October. This coincided with 5.1m tides which resulted in the pontoons being horizontal to the pier and the water washing over the pier. Thankfully the only damage in the Harbour was to some fendering at the entrance to the Outer Harbour, although West Bay car park took a bit of a pounding, and the road around the back of the Community Centre was blocked for a short while.
We are now on the Winter timetable for CalMac, so we are down to just the Loch Nevis operating from Mallaig at the moment. The Lord of the Isles was due to be operating from Mallaig between 21st October and 5th November, but due to ongoing challenges with other vessels, this has not been possible. The next period that the Lord of the Isles is due to operate from Mallaig is from 1st December until 4th January. CalMac are currently consulting on the timetable for Summer 2025, with forms to be submitted online by 8th November. The guidance attached to this consultation indicates that timetables are to be maintained at their current level, and that changes will be by exception only. The process has again flagged up the need for a local Ferry Users Group. This will be especially important as Rob Ware, who has for many years collated responses on behalf of the Sleat and Mallaig communities, is leaving the area, and will no longer be able to do so. We’ll be working with Rob to put something together, and looking for local representation, so watch out for this over the coming months.
Although I had some annual leave in October, I also had a day and a half in Kilkeel at the British Ports Association Fishing Ports Group meeting. Kilkeel, Ardglass and Portavogie Harbours are all operated by the Northern Irish Fishery Harbour Authority, which is effectively owned by DEARA, the Northern Irish equivalent of DEFRA, and operated as an independent, arms-length organisation. This is quite different from the way we operate as a Trust Port, although still with an emphasis on supporting the wider community. We had presentations from the RNMDSF in Kilkeel, and the Northern Ireland Fish Producers Organisation (NIFPO). There has been quite a bit of work being done in Kilkeel around foreign crew and their rights, and this has resulted in a Modern Slavery statement being published on the 18th October. This coincided with the British Ports Association launching a guide for Ports and Harbours on Modern Slavery, People Trafficking and People Smuggling in the Westminster Parliament. The recent media coverage of the treatment of some foreign crews has brought this issue to the forefront, so it’s good to see efforts to ensure that crews are treated fairly and with respect.
While in Kilkeel, it was interesting to see that their vessels still have a Herring quota – the fishmarket was full of insulated bins awaiting Herring landings. While there are no Herring Landings in Mallaig now, Herring and the Herring Girls are very much part of our history. 35,000 people were employed in the industry in the 1900s with around 14,000 of them being women. They would travel from port to port from June to September following fleets of boats to gut and pack fish into barrels for export. Highlife Highland’s Archive Service, in partnership with Suffolk Archives, the Norfolk Record Office, and Tasglann nan Eilean (the Hebridean Archives) have been awarded funding to capture the stories of the Herring Girls, and are looking for anyone who has stories of the Herring Girls to get in touch. You can email archives@highlifehighland.com or call: 01349 781130 to share your stories.
While we may have lost the larger ferries for the winter, we seem to have made up for it with larger Aquaculture vessels this week. The Ronja Commander has been berthed in the Outer Harbour for most of the week, and the Isaac McKinnon has been in and out each day discharging. We also have the Ocean Aquila in for a few days, and the Eloise Eslea, which is a new vessel for us in Mallaig. She is owned by Inverlussa Marine and on contract to Scottish Seafarms to provide thermo de-lousing treatment to their farms. The vessel is fitted with diesel electric propulsion and a battery hybrid system to lower fuel consumption and emissions during standby or overnight. Although she is only 27m long, her height means that she’s quite an imposing vessel coming out of Loch Nevis and into the Harbour each day!
We’re still awaiting a decision from Transport Scotland on the overnight ferry berth so no news on that this month, and also no news (despite lots of people asking us!) on what might happen to the boatyard site.
Finally this month, it would be remiss of me not to mention the deaths of three people who each had a long connection with the Harbour; John Henderson, Toby Robinson and ‘Sparky’ Longmuir. Our condolences to each of their families.
Jacqueline McDonell
