Shetland Fisheries Statistics 2020

Abstract

In 2020:
- 54,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish, worth £72 million, were landed in Shetland, just under half of it by Shetland fishing boats. That was more by weight than in 2019 but less in value.
- One-fifth of all the finfish landed in Scotland, and almost one-sixth of that landed in the UK, were landed in Shetland.
- More fish and shellfish were landed in Shetland than in any other port in the UK, except Peterhead.
- More finfish were landed in Shetland than in all of England and Wales and almost as much as all that landed in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- Shetland boats landed 94,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish worth £105 million. That was somewhat more by weight but slightly less by value than in 2019.
- Shetland boats accounted for almost one-quarter of all the fish and shellfish landed by Scottish boats, and 15% of that landed by UK boats.
- 18,600 tonnes of whitefish worth £37 million were landed in Shetland, more than two-thirds of it by local boats. That was substantially less than in 2019, mainly due to a 50% cut in the cod quota.
- Lerwick, Scalloway and Cullivoe were all in the top-15 UK ports for whitefish landings.
- Shetland boats landed 13,500 tonnes of whitefish worth £28 million, almost all of it in Shetland. Again, that was substantially less than in 2019.
- 33,000 tonnes of pelagic fish, worth £30 million, were landed in Shetland, significantly more than in 2019.
- 2,100 tonnes of shellfish, worth almost £5 million, were landed in Shetland, slightly more by weight than in 2019 but significantly less in value.
- Overall, there does not appear to have been a large impact on fish landings in Shetland from the COVID-19 pandemic. The biggest probable impact was on the prices of shellfish and, to a lesser extent, of some whitefish species.

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https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/en/publications/a3621602-47ed-491a-8ec3-d1c3ac20dc4d