The blue whiting season for the Scottish pelagic fleet is drawing to a close and is expected to finish within the next fortnight.
Boats are currently fishing west of Scotland and have been landing into Scotland, Norway, Denmark, Faroe Islands and Iceland depending on availability of processing factories.
The fishery for Scottish boats began off Donegal in Ireland where the fish congregate in the early part of the year to spawn before then gradually migrating northwards past Scotland and up into Faroese and Norwegian waters to spend the summer.
Around half of the Scottish fleet has blue whiting quota, which forms an important annual eight-week fishery. It is particularly important for keeping onshore processing facilities busy in what would otherwise be a quiet period when there is no mackerel and herring fishing happening.
The Norwegians have been fishing for blue whiting since the 1970s, with Scottish boats first entering the fishery not long after. Today, the EU, Faroes, Iceland, Russia and Greenland also participate in the fishery.
Because the shoals are found offshore at a time of year when the weather is often stormy, it is only the larger mackerel and herring vessels in the Scottish fleet that are capable of targeting the species.
Once the blue whiting season ends, the next major fishery for Scottish boats will be North Sea herring, which will commence with the maatjes fishery in June before the main fishery starts towards the end of July. Maatjes herring are much sought after in the Netherlands and refer to young herring harvested before the spawning season when the fish are especially fat and nutrient rich.
Once the herring fishery has been completed, mackerel will become the focus of attention for the fleet from October onwards.