• The purpose of this article is to provide a brief profile of the Scottish fishing fleet and to highlight the principal changes which have taken place in the size structure and location of its vessels over the past decade.
• The Scottish fishing fleet has been separating into two sectors, composed of large vessels of 25+ metres in length and small boats of under 10 metres. Both these sectors have increased in number, the latter by 46 per cent since 1986, whereas the number of medium sized vessels has fallen by 20 per cent.
• These changes appear to have occurred in response to three main pressures: regulatory factors; financial considerations; and a policy to decommission fishing vessels.
• Small boats are the most numerous, medium vessels represent the largest sector in terms of aggregate power and large vessels dominate the tonnage figures.
• Although the total tonnage of both small and medium vessels has changed since 1986, the average tonnage per vessel has remained relatively constant whereas that of large vessels has risen dramatically. This situation has been stimulated by the policy of requiring fishing vessel licences to be aggregated whenever a larger capacity vessel is being introduced into the fleet. This has led to licences from two or more smaller vessels being combined in order to introduce new and larger'super trawlers'.
• Average power (kilowatts) per vessel has increased since 1986 by between 2-3 per cent per annum for each of the three length class categories. However, there is some evidence to suggest that in recent years the recorded power figures, particularly for the largest vessels, have become less reliable. They are lower than might have been expected on the basis of the amount of tonnage in this sector and previous power/tonnage statistical relationships.
• Data difficulties make any interpretation of changes before 1993 in the locations where vessels have been based very difficult, particularly for the under 10m fleet. Since 1993, however, a consistent time series by district has been devised. Although small boats are widely distributed around the coast there is a particular concentration into the Highlands and Islands, where such vessels target stocks of shellfish, mostly using creels. Registered ownership of large vessels is heavily concentrated in just three areas - the Grampian ports, Shetland Isles and Troon, in the district of Ayr.
• The three main types of fishing method are each dominated by a different size of vessel. Most shellfish boats are small, being under 10m; the majority of demersal vessels are between 10m-25m; and the pelagic fleet consists entirely of large vessels in excess of 25m in length.

Introduction

This article considers changes in the port location and size structure, as measured by vessel numbers, length, power and tonnage, of the Scottish fishing fleet in the period between 1986 and 1996.

Data Sources and Problems

The data on vessel numbers, length class, base district, tonnage and power are taken from the annual Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics and the Scottish Fishing Fleet Statistical Tables². The summary tables cover all active vessels based in Scotland. Only by plotting the figures for each year has it been possible to identify discontinuities and hence potential problems with the time series. Prior to 1993, when all vessels under 10 metres (m) in length required a licence to fish for the first time, the statistical coverage of this sector of the fishing fleet was not comprehensive and could vary from district to district as well as from year to year for any given district. The recorded number of boats depended very much on the local knowledge of the Fishery Officer, especially in the remoter districts covering long coastlines. This makes it difficult to distinguish genuine changes in vessel numbers from statistical ones either for the under 10m fleet on its own or the fleet as a whole. The sudden increase in the number of vessels recorded in 1993, for instance, simply reflected the rush by all owners of vessels under 10m to show that they qualified for, and should be granted, a fishing licence. This led to the inclusion in the Statistical Tables of about 400 extra boats in the under 10m fleet.

There were also major changes to the data in the 1995 Scottish Fishing Fleet Statistical Tables. A new data series for vessel length was introduced, using metres rather than feet, and the concept of "overall length" replaced "registered length". The former definition generally records vessels as being longer than the latter³. Figures for previous years have been reworked to produce a consistent time series back to 1986 for most of the Tables in this article.

Unfortunately, this has not been possible for those Tables covering the location and length class of fishing vessels by district. Consequently this data series is not compatible with any of the other series. However, unpublished data have been used to produce a consistent time series by district from 1993, based on metres and overall length. For the purposes of this article all the time series cover the same period, 1986-96, but the Tables and text draw attention to the main discontinuities in the figures.

It is also important to note that the location of a vessel is allocated to a base district, which is defined as the area in which the majority of the owners live and which includes the Scottish Fishery Office responsible for the issue of licences for that vessel⁴. This district is not necessarily the same as the one which the vessel operates out of for most of the year so the base district shows the location of ownership rather than of operations.

Changes in the Number and Length Class of Vessels

As shown in Table 1, between 1986 and 1992 the number of fishing boats recorded in the Scottish Fleet Statistics increased by 14 per cent, from 2,183 to 2,482 vessels. In 1993 there was suddenly an increase of 17 per cent (413 vessels) in the number of vessels recorded. However, this is largely a statistical quirk caused by the inclusion in that year of all those under 10 metre vessels which, for various reasons, had previously been omitted from the register prior to the introduction of compulsory licensing. The pre- and post-1993 figures for the under 10m fleet are, therefore, not comparable and the apparent increase of 38 per cent in the number of vessels in 1993 is spurious. There are also strong reasons for suspecting that the trends in both the under 10m sector, and for overall vessel numbers, are misleading prior to 1993 as a result of annual fluctuations in the coverage of the Fleet Register; this is discussed later. Since 1993 the number of vessels has decreased by 3 per cent.

Table 1: The Scottish Fishing Fleet by Length Class, 1986-96

To facilitate the analysis and to avoid having too many size categories, vessels have been grouped in subsequent Tables into three length classes: under 10 metres (about 30 feet), 10-24.9 metres (about 30-79.9 feet) and 25 metres and over (about 80 feet and over). These groupings are taken to represent small, medium and large vessels. The rationale for using these three length categories is made clear in Table 1, which shows that there were marked differences between them in terms of trends in vessel numbers. Over the 1986-96 period as a whole, there appears to have been an increase in the number of vessels in the length classes below 10m. In contrast, all three classes between 10-25m experienced a decline in vessel numbers whereas two of the three length classes above 25m saw an increase. Overall, growth in the 25+m fleet averaged 4 per cent per annum (pa).

Despite the data problems, it does appear possible to identify some general trends. The fleet seems to be dividing increasingly into two segments, composed of large and small vessels. The number of medium sized vessels has declined by 20 per cent since 1986, with the rate of contraction accelerating in the last three years to an average of -5.9 per cent pa. The large vessel sector has averaged 4.0 per cent pa growth since 1986, with a 46 per cent increase in the number of boats. Trends in the small vessel sector are much harder to interpret due to the data inconsistencies. Our best estimate is that the number of small boats was relatively static up until 1993 but since then there has been an increase of about 2 per cent pa.

These trends seem to have occurred for three main reasons. First, the under 10m vessels continue to be less heavily regulated than the rest of the fleet and so those owners who have wanted to avoid the increasingly stringent management regime being applied elsewhere have had an incentive to move from the smaller end of the medium sized sector into the under 10m sector. Most under 10m boats target shellfish species that are not subject to quota, whilst those that catch species with a quota are not affected by the track record regime that applies to larger vessels. Second, when licences are aggregated there is no capacity penalty for single licence transfers to under 10m vessels. Third, vessels under 12m long have been excluded from the detailed and expensive safety regulations that apply to larger vessels, although a simplified Safety Code is now being considered for the under 12m fleet. These factors have helped to retain vessels in the small vessel sector of the fleet although they are having an impact on vessel design. In order to stay within the small length class category boats are becoming beamier and deeper in a bid to increase their fishing capacity.

The second factor is more directly related to financial considerations. Economies of scale have favoured investment in larger capacity vessels, which can work ever more powerful gear, target a wider range of species and carry more fish. A length of 25m is a critical threshold because vessels in excess of this are required to meet even more exacting safety standards as well as more stringent manning conditions in terms of the number of deck officers and the level of their certificates. Generally instead of one'ticketed' crew member there have to be two. In addition, these vessels are to be subjected to satellite monitoring. As a result of meeting these various requirements, the Fishing Vessel Regulations allow such vessels to operate in a greater range of weather and sea conditions, thereby making it possible for them to stay at sea for longer and to fish over a far wider area of water. The growing interest in deep water fisheries off the west coast of Scotland, as quotas have reduced the fishing opportunities in the North Sea, has provided an additional incentive to invest in these larger vessels.

The introduction of licence aggregation penalties has meant that a larger capacity vessel can only be introduced into the fleet by combining the licences from two or more smaller vessels. This results in one large vessel being substituted for two or more smaller sized ones. Initially, in 1990, the combined capacity of such existing vessels, measured in Vessel Capacity Units (VCUs), had to be equivalent to 110 per cent of the new vessel. This figure was increased to 120 per cent in 1992 and to 130 per cent in December 1994 when involving three or more vessels. The only constraint on the aggregation of under 10m vessel licences is that they must not result in a VCU total in excess of 100 units. The VCUs are calculated from the physical size of the boat and the power of the engine. Since the size of the new vessel is likely to be determined by operational requirements the only factor which can be altered to reduce the declared number of its VCUs, and hence the number of extra VCUs which have to be purchased before it can obtain a licence, is the power of the engine. This provides a strong incentive for owners to minimise the declared power of the engines on any new boats being brought into the fleet.

A third factor is that, in order to reduce over-capacity in the fishing fleet and to meet targets laid down by the European Union, it has been government policy to pay fishermen to decommission their vessels. Given the relatively greater administrative and/or financial attractions of the small and large vessel sectors, most decommissioned vessels have been in one of the medium sized length classes. Decommissioning has, therefore, speeded up the fleet restructuring process and helps to explain the increased rate of decline in the number of medium sized vessels since 1993.

Table 1 shows that, in 1996, about 59 per cent of the fleet consisted of small boat (under 10m), 33 per cent were medium sized vessels and 8 per cent were large vessels of over 25m. The number of vessels in each length class decreases as length class increases. The exception is the very largest size category of 35+m vessels. This has more boats than the 30-35m length class but such a situation is hardly surprising since there is no upper limit to the size of vessels in the largest category.

The large boats represent only 8 per cent of the fleet but account for 62 per cent of the total tonnage and 38 per cent of the power, although there are reasons for thinking that the latter may have been under-stated. Conversely the small vessels contribute only 5 per cent to overall tonnage and 15 per cent to power. The respective figures for the medium sized vessels are 32 per cent of the tonnage and 47 per cent of the power. Hence small boats are the largest sector in terms of vessel numbers, medium vessels are the largest in terms of power and the large vessels dominate the tonnage figures.

Changes in the Location of Vessels by Length Class

Table 2 shows the number of vessels by district between 1986 and 1996. Table 2A in Annex 1 provides this information by length of vessel.

Table 2: The Number of Vessels by District, 1986-96