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 MAGP IV has now ended and has been replaced by global effort ceilings at member state level controlled through a system of entry/exit controls.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, 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 licence 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 the mechanism for ensuring reductions in the capacity of the UK fleet to meet with EU and UK objectives.

The UK restrictive licensing controls, in combination with successive decommissioning schemes (1994-1997; 2001-2002 and 2003-04), 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

2005 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 demersal fleet.

There were 2,376 active fishing vessels based in Scotland at the end of 2005, a net reduction of 18 since 2004 ( Table 1). There were reductions in the number of active vessels in 10 out of 18 districts (Table I below) with the losses mainly in the northern and north- western areas including the isles. The number of active vessels did increase in seven districts with the largest increases being at Pittenweem (+8 vessels) and Ayr (+6 vessels).

Table I: Changes in numbers of active Scottish based vessels 2004-05, by district.

Source: Table 6 and Scottish Fisheries Statistics 2004

The under 10 metre segment of the fleet decreased by 10 vessels to 1,652 over the year to December 2005 and has been relatively stable at around 1,600 vessels since 1995 ( Table 1). The over 10 metres fleet decreased by 8 vessels in 2005 continuing a long term decline. This segment is now 38 per cent smaller than in 1995, a trend which has affected the demersal (down 42 per cent), pelagic (down 49 per cent) and shellfish (down 33 per cent) sectors.

1.3 Vessel Capacity

1.3.1 Overall length

The average overall length of vessels in the over 10m fleet was 19.14 metres in 2005, a shortening of one centimetre on the 2004 figure. This indicates that the declining trend in vessel length observed since 2000 may have slowed. Since 2000, the average length within the over 10m segment has fallen by 90 cm and is now at the lowest length in the decade ( 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.

The total registered engine power of the over 10m Scottish fleet was 341 thousand kilowatts in 2005 ( Table 1) a fall of less than one per cent since 2004 and 11 per cent lower than 1995. However, average engine power, at 471 kW, has increased by 43 per cent since 1995. 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 38 per cent reduction in the over 10 m fleet since 1995 (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

Total employment in the catching sector fell by six per cent to 4,971 between 2004 to 2005 ( Table 11), while the number of fishermen regularly employed on Scottish based vessels at 3,813 was eight per cent lower in 2005 ( Table 13). The number of irregularly employed (mainly part time) fishermen in 2005 increased by 13 to 1,065.

At a district level, the biggest losses in regular employment occurred at Ayr (-110) jobs and Peterhead (-101 jobs). The biggest employment gain was seen at Shetland, which gained 44 regular fishing jobs. Due to the job losses at Ayr, the district with the highest regular and total number of fishing jobs is back to being Fraserburgh where there was an increase in regular and total employment.

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