Successful Seafish Fleet Survey concludes
16th October 2023
After 10 weeks of fieldwork, it is time to wrap up our 2023 Fleet Survey. Our researchers spoke to 370 skippers and vessel owners, visiting harbours from every corner of the UK.
I would like to thank every fisherman who took time from their day to speak with us. Your opinion is vital to paint a complete picture of the seafood industry. Every bit of data is helpful to measure the health of the sector, whether you contributed with an in-depth interview or a brief informal chat.
During these last months, skippers and vessel owners spoke with us about the performance of their businesses during the last year. They explained what has impacted their day to day operations. The majority of the fishermen have rated 2022 as ‘average’ or ‘above average’. Better market prices for some species have accompanied the decrease in fuel costs during winter, together with relatively healthy stocks.
Looking to the future, many participants said they were unsure about prospects due to the high levels of new regulation coming in after Brexit. The uncertainty regarding Marine Protected Areas is also relevant around the whole of the UK. They also talked about the issues recruiting foreign crew, and new restrictions, while local new entrants are still declining.
While facing these challenges, the resilience of skippers never ceases to amaze me. Their ability to push on in a changing landscape, their generosity and their passion for this trade are inspiring to all of us working in the sector.
Over the coming months the Economics, Insight and Advice Team will be contacting accountants to the UK.
I would like to thank every fisherman who took time from their day to speak with us. Your opinion is vital to paint a complete picture of the seafood industry. Every bit of data is helpful to measure the health of the sector, whether you contributed with an in-depth interview or a brief informal chat.
During these last months, skippers and vessel owners spoke with us about the performance of their businesses during the last year. They explained what has impacted their day to day operations. The majority of the fishermen have rated 2022 as ‘average’ or ‘above average’. Better market prices for some species have accompanied the decrease in fuel costs during winter, together with relatively healthy stocks.
Looking to the future, many participants said they were unsure about prospects due to the high levels of new regulation coming in after Brexit. The uncertainty regarding Marine Protected Areas is also relevant around the whole of the UK. They also talked about the issues recruiting foreign crew, and new restrictions, while local new entrants are still declining.
While facing these challenges, the resilience of skippers never ceases to amaze me. Their ability to push on in a changing landscape, their generosity and their passion for this trade are request financial data. We then extract costs and earnings from businesses’ financial accounts that are submitted to the sample. This way we can estimate costs and earnings of the whole of the UK fleet using official landings data. At the same time, we’ll be contacting fuel suppliers to obtain fishing businesses’ fuel records. From these, fuel usage can be extracted in order to calculate the emissions related to boat propulsion.
We will publish estimates for costs and earnings for 2022-2023 around the second quarter of next year, and if you requested a free benchmark report, you can expect to receive it in July. For more information about economic data, and the stories behind it, you can read our upcoming Quay Issues magazine due out in October.
Thanks again for your participation. To talk about the survey contact me on: 07966 764150.
By CARLOS PAREDES Seafish Fleet Survey project manager
This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.30 here.
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