The fishing industry has shaped the coastlines of Scotland like no other, port from the largest to the tiny community harbours form the heart of our villages have developed over centuries. The Herring boom had probably the largest impact on our area with planned villages such as Torry and Footdee being built for the workers that migrated to our area.

Since the collapse of the herring fishery our industry has moved into three main sectors:

• Pelagic vessels target species such as mackerel in the deep waters, these are highly successful vessels that sell their products globally.
• Whitefish and Langoustine vessels tend to operate in the wide North Sea supporting our major harbours, Peterhead being the largest whitefish and shell fish port in Europe.  
• Small inshore vessels make up the vast majority of the fleet by numbers targeting Crab and Lobster. Our region also makes up the majority of the handline mackerel fleet.

At this time aquaculture is absent from our coastal waters due to a presumption against developments to protect the areas major salmon and seatrout rivers.

Numbers of jobs in the fishing industry is showing a slow decline while numbers of vessels is stable but moving generally to the two hub post of Fraserburgh and Peterhead.

(if you wish to comment on the above please complete a feedback sheet that can be found on any of the information sheets below)