UK vessels landed a total of 698,000t for £989m in 2018, according to the annual UK sea fisheries statistics released by the MMO last month (Thursday, 26 September), reports David Linkie.

This overall total included landings of 36,200t and £115m from the under-10m fleet, of which under-8m vessels contributed £33.3m/7,800t.

In terms of catch value, the 2018 total is 1% higher than the previous year’s figure of £979m, while the tonnage is 4% lower than the 725,000t landed in 2017.

Out of the overall annual catch total for 2018, UK vessels landed 426,000t for £727m into UK ports, and 272,000t for £262m abroad. Landings by UK vessels into Scotland totalled £468m, England £209m, N Ireland £25m and Wales £16m.

Catches totalling 54,000t for £65m were landed into UK ports by international vessels last year. These figures give overall landings into the UK in 2018 of £992m from 480,000t.

At £362m and 135,000t, shellfish landings by UK vessels were marginally ahead of demersal, at £355m from 176,000t. Pelagic species contributed a further £273m and 386,000t.

Mackerel (£202m) was the single most valuable species caught by UK vessels, ahead of Nephrops (£83m), crabs (£81m), cod (£75m), scallops (£70m), monkfish (£60m) and haddock (£52m).

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