Well after a busy mackerel season, it is time for a well earned rest for our production staff. The season came to a close with landings from the Fraserburgh registered Enterprise and formerly Shetland-owned Altaire. We have had several landings from our Scottish suppliers, including Kings Cross, Resolute and Challenge. As well, we have had some good landings from a couple of Northern Irish boats.

However, most notably we had a record landing of mackerel from the Altaire on the 26th January. 2,000 tonnes was landed, which is thought to be the largest recorded landing in any UK port. The weekend after, there was another landing of the same size, which was caught in only two hauls.

Fish has been of a high standard, with average sizes ranging from about 420g to 460g.

The fishing grounds started off mostly on the west coast of Scotland, but recently the mackerel has migrated south and fishing has mainly been off the south west coast of Ireland.

Local and Scottish boats still have some quota left but it is thought that this will be saved until the end of the year for the October mackerel season. The majority of boats have either tied up now or are changing their fishing gear in preparation for catching other quotas, such as Atlanto-Scandian herring.

Shipping has remained constant at all times. We have had several reefers in loading frozen fish to transport to our various cold stores throughout Europe.

The market for mackerel has been fairly steady recently, with high demand coming from our European markets. As a result, our sales team has been kept busy. Simon, John and Billy will be jetting off soon to visit some of our customers in Europe and also further afield.

Here in the marketing department, we are busy preparing for the upcoming exhibition in Brussels, which will take place on 24th to 26th April. We look forward to seeing our customers while we are there. We will be in the same place as last year, Hall 5 stand 645. Our sales team will be in touch shortly to arrange meeting times. Arrangements are also being made for our corporate event, which will be in the evening on Tuesday 24th April.

If you would like to get in contact with our sales team about buying any of our products or arranging an appointment while we are in Brussels, please email them at sales@shetlandcatch.com