Fishing News Awards 2024: Nominations now open!
5th December 2023
We are delighted to launch the Fishing News Awards 2024, which will once again take place at The Chester Hotel in Aberdeen. The countdown is on to a night when we can gather with friends and colleagues to celebrate the very best of our industry.
This year’s awards will take place on Wednesday, 8 May – the night before the 2024 Scottish Skipper Expo opens in Aberdeen.
The celebratory evening will begin with a drinks reception, followed by a gourmet UK- caught seafood meal with wine, after which our celebrity host – whose identity will be revealed early in the new year – will entertain guests and present the awards to the 2024 winners.
The only event dedicated to recognising achievement, innovation and success in the UK and Irish commercial fishing industry, the Fishing News Awards 2024 will make awards in 12 categories.
By popular demand, Boat of the Year will be split into two categories this year, allowing our expert pancel to judge excellence in the design and build of vessels in the Under-15m category separately from those in the Over-15m category.
In recognition of the increasing focus on sustainability across the industry, the vessel category criteria have also been expanded this year to include rebuilds, allowing outstanding repurposed and refurbished vessels to be entered in these categories as well as new builds.
The former ‘innovation’ category will also be split into two this year, with Initiative of the Year celebrating new organisations, websites or campaigns that have benefited the industry in 2023, while the year’s outstanding new products, product developments and technological innovations will be judged in the Technical Innovation of the Year category.
The first of this year’s category sponsors have already been confirmed. We are delighted to welcome back Peterhead Port Authority as sponsor of Over-10m Fisherman of the Year, and the Scottish White Fish Producers’ Association as sponsor of the Lifetime Achievement Award.
A wide range of sponsorship opportunities are available at this year’s awards. To discuss how your company can get involved, please contact Simon Hyland on: 01732 445327 or at: simon@talk-media.uk.
Further details of the awards, including how to book tickets and tables for the presentation evening, will be announced in the coming weeks.
Make your nominations now!
Nominations for the Fishing News Awards 2024 are now open, and can be made here.
The awards set out to celebrate the very best across the UK and Irish industries – so their success depends on Fishing News readers around the coast putting forward their top local candidates for recognition. You can nominate a colleague, a friend, a family member – or indeed yourself!
If you’re a young fisherman who has been mentored by an inspirational skipper, a vessel owner with an outstanding new recruit, or a training college with a first- class student, we need your inside knowledge to ensure that our shortlists really do represent the very best of the talent from around the UK and Ireland.
Do you know of a company, individual or organisation that has provided exemplary service to the industry, or of an industry initiative that you feel has raised the bar? Have you been impressed by a sustainability initiative that has advanced environmental responsibility? Has your local port stepped
up to improve its services or amenities this year?
Put forward your chosen candidates, and let us know why they deserve recognition in this year’s awards.
The shortlisting and voting stages will depend on the strength of the supporting information given to us at the nomination stage. Please read the category criteria carefully, and provide as much relevant detail as you can, to give your nominee the best chance of progressing to the shortlist. This includes contact details for your nominee, as we will need to get in touch with them in order for them to be shortlisted.
All nominations need to be received by midnight on Monday, 12 February. Shortlists will then be drawn up before voting opens for eight of the categories. A panel of judges drawn from the fishing industry will decide the winners of the remaining four categories: Under-15m Boat of the Year, Over-15m Boat of the Year, The Sustainability Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award.
To put forward your nominations, click here.
