Oil Leak 131 What’s the value of commercial fisheries

10th April 2017
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Commercial fishing in the inner Moray Firth is an important source of income and jobs for fragile rural coastal economies. There is a relatively small demersal and pelagic fishery, with the majority of landings being shellfish. The key target species being: brown crab, velvet crab, squid, nephrops, lobster, king scallop, whelk, periwinkle, mussel, razor fish, green crab, queen scallop and cockles. [1] The figures below represent landings from ports most likely to be affected by any oil spill and subsequent closure of fishing grounds in the inner Moray Firth up to 12nautical miles (nm) offshore.

Tonnage and Value of Landings in 2009 into the Inner Moray Firth by Vessels Fishing in the 0 – 6 nautical mile (nm) and 6 – 12nm Zones (Total landings of <1 tonne not recorded). Adapted from Area Fisheries Management Plan for the Moray Firth Inshore Fisheries Group 2011

 

Landing Fishing Area Shellfish Demersal Landings Pelagic Total Tonnage Total Value (£)
Place Landings (Tonnes) (Tonnes) Landings
(Tonnes)
AVOCH 0 – 6nm 0 0 0 0
6 -12nm 0 0 0    
BALINTORE 0 – 6nm 11 0 0 11 42000
6 -12nm 4 0 0 4 16000
BRORA 0 – 6nm 7 0 0 7 58000
6 -12nm 0 0 0    
GOLSPIE 0 – 6nm 10 0 0 10 51000
6 -12nm 0 0 0    
CROMARTY 0 – 6nm 42 0 0 42 97000
6 -12nm 26 0 0 26 71000
INVER- 0 – 6nm 3 0 0 3 3000
GORDON 6 -12nm 0 0 0    
INVERNESS 0 – 6nm 42 0 0 42 32000
6 -12nm 6 0 0 6 14000
MEIKLE- 0 – 6nm 291 0 0 291 76000
FERRY* 6 -12nm 0 0 0    
PORT- 0 – 6nm 62 0 0 62 113000
MAHOMACK 6 -12nm 2 0 0 2 5000
BUCKIE 0 – 6nm 579 0 10 589 1233000
6 -12nm 173 2 0 175 329000
BURGHEAD 0 – 6nm 278 0 0 278 503000
6 -12nm 45 0 0 45 92000
HOPEMAN 0 – 6nm 1 0 0 1 2000
6 -12nm 0 0 0 0  
LOSSIE- 0 – 6nm 62 0 0 62 130000
MOUTH 6 -12nm 17 1 0 18 43000
NAIRN 0 – 6nm 1 0 0 1 9000
6 -12nm 0 0 0 0  
PORT- 0 – 6nm 3 0 1 4 9000
KNOCKIE 6 -12nm 0 0 0 0  
 
TOTAL ALL 0 – 6nm 1392 0 11 1403 2358000
PORTS 6 -12nm 273 3 0 276 570000
 

 

The total value of landings for the area is some £2.98 million per annum. Seafish[2] have produced some useful multipliers to gauge the wider value of fishing in the UK.

Based on the value at first sale of UK fish landings varying by £1 million the expected impacts on the UK economy were calculated as follows:

For demersal species:

  • UK Output would change by £6.29 million;
  • UK Employment would change by 70 FTE jobs;

For shellfish species:

  • UK Output would change by £7.16 million;
  • UK Employment would change by 113 FTE jobs;

For pelagic species:

  • UK Output would change by £6.73 million;
  • UK Employment would change by 79 FTE jobs;

Based on 3 tonnes of demersal, 11 tonnes pelagic and 1679 shellfish with £2.98M value at first sale., this equates total value for the Inner Moray Firth fishing industry of £32,635 for demersal, pelagic – £128,032 and shellfish, £20.79 million – a total of £20.92 million, directly supporting some 330 jobs. This figure does not take into account the value of onshore processing. Using the multipliers in the Seafish paper, associated processing has a value of 28.36 million with 1334 jobs depending on it. The total value of fishing in the inner Moray firth is thus £49.15 million with 1664 jobs depending on it. By far the vast majority of the economic value is in shellfish which are likely to experience the greatest impact in the event of a spill.

[1] Area Fisheries Management Plan for the Moray Firth Inshore Fisheries Group 2011.

[2] The economic impacts of the UK sea fishing and fish processing sectors: input output analysis. http://www.seafish.org/media/Publications/2006_I-O_Key_Features_Final_090108.pdf

 

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