UK: Steady fishing for Shetland whitefish fleet

Steady fishing for Shetland whitefish fleet. The Shetland whitefish fleet is looking forward to a good second half to the year, with landings expected to pick up over the next few months. Brian Isbister, chief executive of the Shetland Fish Producers’ Organisation told Fish Focus: “The whitefish story for 2024 is a reasonably good one but landings during the first six months have been back on last year. There have been a number of reasons for this, including weather disruption, particularly to the ferry service over the winter period together with ongoing ferry capacity problems. “The loss of the trawler ‘Opportune’ LK209 early in the year, coupled with a number of lengthy breakdowns across the fleet has also contributed significantly to landings being below what we might have anticipated. This situation is however expected to improve during the second half of the year. “The market remains positive with the usual range of species prominent in members’ catches. Although quota ...