The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has published its annual UK Sea Fisheries Statistics 2018.
It includes details on the UK fleet, the number of fishermen, the quantity and value of UK landings, international trade, worldwide fishing and the state of key stocks.
UK fleet size: 2008 to 2018
Number of fishermen in the UK: 2008 to 2018
The report highlights that in 2018:
The quantity of sea fish landed by UK vessels has decreased by 4% however, the value of landings has increased by 1% in value from 2017.
UK vessels landed 698,000 tones of sea fish into the UK and abroad with a value of £989 million.
UK fleet landings abroad fell to 272,000 tonnes compared with 291,000 tonnes in 2017, almost entirely down to a decrease in mackerel landings.
Mackerel landings fell to 191,000 tonnes from 227,000 thousand tonnes in 2017, but still made up a substantial 27% of UK fleet landings.
The Scottish and Northern Irish fleets caught mainly pelagic fish. The English landed mainly demersal species and the Welsh caught mostly shellfish.
The UK fishing fleet remained seventh largest in the EU in terms of vessel numbers, with the second largest capacity and fourth largest engine power.
74% of the quantity landed by the UK fleet was caught by vessels over 24 metres in length which accounted for 4% of the total number of UK vessels. These vessels tend to catch lower value pelagic fish.
Around 12,000 fishermen were active in the UK. Approximately 2,400 were part-time.
Scottish vessels accounted for 64% of the quantity of landings by the UK fleet while English vessels accounted for 27%.
Once again, Peterhead was the port with the highest UK fleet landings – 154,000 tonnes with a value of £169 million.
Brixham had the highest value of UK fleet landings in England – £36 million (of mainly high value shellfish), this was £5 million lower than in 2017 due to a drop in the quantity of fish landed into Brixham in 2018.
Imports of fish were down by 31,000 tonnes to 674,000 tonnes. Exports also fell, by 12,000 tonnes to 448,000 tonnes.
World figures for 2017 showed that China caught the largest amount of fish, 13.0 million tonnes. Indonesia had the second largest catch at 6.2 million tonnes.
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