The Scottish Government

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1. Overview of the Scottish Fishing Fleet

1.1 The regulation of the UK Fleet

The structure and capacity of the UK and Scottish fishing fleets has, since 1983, been dictated primarily by the EU Common Fisheries Policy ( CFP). Between 1997 and 2002, fleet structure was managed within the CFP through the fourth Multi Annual Guidance Programme ( MAGP) designed to tailor fleet capacity to available fish stocks across the EU. Under this programme the UK fishing fleet was divided into eight segments, defined primarily by broad fishing method ¹, and capacity limits or effort reduction targets set for each segment. MAGP IV has now ended and has been replaced by global effort ceilings at member state level controlled through a system of entry/exit controls. In simple terms, a vessel can only enter the fleet when equivalent capacity has exited the fleet.

At a UK level to date, restrictive licensing has been the main Government instrument to bring the activities of the UK fishing fleet into line with MAGP and UK aims on fleet and catch management. Aside from a few limited exceptions, all vessels engaged in commercial sea fishing are required to hold a licence issued by UK Fisheries Departments. There are a finite number of licences in existence and no new licences are made available. This places a ceiling on the total number of vessels in the UK fishing fleet. In order to license new vessels, fishermen must acquire one or more existing licences from other previously licensed vessels. Capacity penalties are applied when licences are transferred, or aggregated to form a larger licence unit, and these, together with the restricted number of licences on issue, form a mechanism resulting in reductions in the capacity of the UK fleet.

The UK restrictive licensing controls, in combination with successive decommissioning schemes (1994-1997; 2001-2002 and 2003-2004), explain many of the fleet trends in recent years and the figures presented here are interpreted in this context where appropriate.

1.2 Fleet size

2007 saw a continuation of recent changes to the Scottish fleet, either directly or indirectly prompted by measures designed to conserve vulnerable whitefish stocks, particularly cod. The most important of these measures in recent years have been the two successive decommissioning schemes in 2001-2002 and 2003-04, under which 165 vessels were removed from the fleet.

During 2006, it was discovered that the UK Core Vessel file, the official source of information on UK vessels, had been notified of Scottish vessels becoming inactive while they were still recorded on FIN as active. An exercise was conducted to take this information on board into FIN, leading to an appreciable drop in the number of active vessels recorded. Because this issue affected the figures for earlier years, the figures published in years before 2006 were revised in the 2006 bulletin.

There were 2,191 active fishing vessels based in Scotland at the end of 2007, a net reduction of 33 (1 per cent) since 2006 (Table 1). There were reductions in the number of active vessels in 11 out of 18 districts (Table I below), with losses mainly in the West and Western Isles. The number of active vessels did increase in 6 districts.

Table I: Changes in numbers of active Scottish based vessels 2006-07, by district.

Source: Table 6 and equivalent 2006 figures.

The under 10 metre segment of the fleet decreased by 24 vessels (2 per cent) to 1,494 over the year to December 2007 and has decreased by 9 per cent since 1997 (Table 1). The over 10 metres fleet decreased by 9 vessels (1 per cent) in 2007. This segment is now 37 per cent smaller than in 1997, a trend which has affected the demersal (down 45 per cent), pelagic (down 52 per cent) and shellfish (down 27 per cent) sectors.

1.3 Vessel Capacity

1.3.1 Overall length

The average overall length of vessels in the over 10m fleet was 19.74 metres in 2007, an increase of one centimetre on the 2006 figure, when the average length was at its lowest value in the decade. Since 2001, the average vessel length within the over 10m segment has fallen by 4 per cent (Table 1).

1.3.2 Engine Power

Engine power statistics in earlier years have been underestimated to an unknown degree, due the inclusion of vessels with engines operating at a higher power than permitted on their licences. In November 1999, in response to this problem, Fisheries Departments introduced special (concessionary) licensing arrangements and a timetable for compliance with engine power controls. Under the compliance timetable licence holders who have admitted to under declaration, had until the end of 2004 to ensure that either: (i) their true engine power is registered and to have acquired enough licence entitlement to cover this, or (ii) to have de-rated their engine to the figure on their licence. In practice, most have chosen to acquire extra licences to cover their operational engine power. Consequently, it needs to be borne in mind that after 1999, the trends in average engine power shown in Table 1 are complicated by the effect of an increasing number of owners declaring their true, higher, engine power. Nevertheless, while this bias makes the actual rate of change unclear, it is clear that Scottish based vessels are now fishing with greater engine power on average than in the past. However recent years show that this may have stabilised.

The total registered engine power of the over 10m Scottish fleet was 323 thousand kilowatts in 2007 (Table 1) a fall of 1 per cent since 2006 and 16 per cent lower than 1997. However, average engine power, at 463 kW, has increased by 33 per cent since 1997. The opposing trends of decreasing total fleet engine capacity and increasing average engine power per can be explained by a combination of factors: (i) the 37 per cent reduction in the number of vessels in the over 10 m fleet since 1997 (Section 1.2); (ii) the "natural wastage" of licensed engine power that often accompanies the aggregation of several licences onto a single vessel ² and; (iii) since 1999, the progressive correction of under declared engine power, in line with the concessionary licensing arrangements noted above.

1.4 Employment

The 2005 employment figures were revised in the 2006 bulletin because they were affected by an understatement in the figures recorded by Peterhead Fisheries Office. The 2005 figures for Peterhead have been estimated as being the same as the 2006 figures.

Total employment in the catching sector increased by four per cent to 5,424 from 2006 to 2007 (Table 11), while the number of fishermen regularly employed on Scottish based vessels at 4,408 was seven per cent higher than in 2006 (Table 13). The number of irregularly employed (mainly part time) fishermen in 2007 decreased by 48 to 951.

At a district level, the largest increase in the recorded numbers in regular employment occurred at Ayr (+102) jobs. Once again Fraserburgh has the most fishermen in regular and total employment.

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