Regional Study - South West Scotland

Summary

The fisheries of South West Scotland are encompassed by the Ayr and Campbeltown statistical districts. Geographically they cover the Scottish Solway coast, the Firth of Clyde and Kintyre and the Inner Hebrides as far North as Colonsay. The Solway is dominated by the Queen scallop fishery centred on Kirkcudbright. The Clyde’s centres are Ayr, Campbeltown and Tarbert with a mix of white fish, shellfish and herring. The white fish include valuable hake but the herring fishery is tiny compared with a few years ago mainly due to a scarcity of the typical large fish much sought after by kipperers. Nephrops dominate the shellfish trade contributing some 30% of the Ayr district total value landed. Campbeltown district including the Inner Hebrides is dominated by shellfish landings in terms of total value. These contribute about 90% of the total of which 50% is from Nephrops. Though much of the shellfish is trucked out of the region, there are Nephrop processors in Campbeltown, Ayr and Scotland’s central belt. White fish is processed in Campbeltown and Ayr and Queen scallops at Campbeltown, Kirkcudbright and Newton Stewart. There are major concerns at the time of writing over disappointing levels of Queen scallop landings. The conflicting interests of trawlers and exercising submarines were highlighted by the tragic incident involving the Carradale vessel ‘ANTARES’. This issue is still of major concern in the area despite much effort towards a resolution. This report has been produced from a scanned original and may therefore contain some formatting and other inaccuracies. In cases where this affects the technical content, a paper copy of the original report can still be obtained from Seafish.

Publication Reference No.

SR448

Publication date

01 November 1994