Pentland Firth Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan: Value Added in the Fish Supply Chain in Orkney and Northern Highlands

Annex 2: Methods

1) Mapping Fishing Activity with ScotMap and VMS

Methods of quantifying the value and volume of landings is normally conducted at ICES rectangles. The PFOW Strategic Area resides in 5 ICES rectangles, but spatially represent only 60% of this area therefore data from these rectangles would overestimate the activity within the PFOW-SA. We therefore used three sets of data to create estimates on fishing activity in the PFOW-SA, VMS data, ScotMap data and Fisheries Information Network ( FIN).

Vessel Monitoring System ( VMS) data for over 15m vessels plots the position of a vessel (much like a SatNav) every two hours. This data is then used to plots a vessel's trip which is linked to catch data taken from that vessel's log book contained in a database called Fisheries Information Network ( FIN). This data can then be aggregated to accurately gather fishing activity in a geographical defined space such as PFOW-SA. This data can produce accurate landings over time and can estimate more accurately what was taken from inside PFOW-SA and from outside PFOW-SA by the over 15m fleet.

As VMS is not required on under 15m vessels, our ability to spatially plot vessels activity is much more limited. As this is a recognised weakness in fisheries management a project called ScotMap was commissioned to gather spatial activity of under 15m vessels throughout Scotland. This project was piloted in Orkney and 100% of the under 15m fleet took part. The project mapped each vessel's activity and asked fishers to estimate the average volume and value that they have taken from each over the last 5 years. Compiled, this data created map of fishing density and value of inshore fishing grounds to the under 15m fleet. We therefore used this data to estimate the proposition of catch coming from inside PFOW-SA for each vessels as well as 2011 FIN data for said vessel to estimate value and volume from inside and outside the PFOW-SA for all Orkney/Northern Highland based vessels.

To establish landings from inside PFOW-SA by species type into each port for the under 15m vessel, the top two landings port for each vessel were taken from FIN and then weighted to assign a proportion of landings to each port. For example, in Kirkwall, three vessels which land into Kirkwall as their main port have a mean landing of 89% of their catch from inside PFOW-SA. Four vessels who landed in Kirkwall as their second port had a mean landing of 65% as their second port. These proportions of landings were then weighted against the number of vessels and then averaged to get a weighted mean of landings from inside the PFOW-SA for that port. These proportions were used to divide total landings into the port from under 15m to ascertain value from inside and outside PFOW-SA.

2) Key Informant Interviews

Key informant interviews were arranged with individuals who were considered to have an overview of the onshore processing sector or inshore fishing activity. Since our key interest was in processing, the objective was speak to as many processors as possible to get a diverse range of views on its dependency and supply chain. Overall, eight interviews were conducted, five in Orkney, and three in the Northern Highlands. Interviews were conducted in an informal manner with 10 open questions based around four themes: 1) types of business/type of processing and raw product; 2) markets, associated industries and supply chain; 3) employee and job creation and; 4) potential changes from alternative marine uses. Interview durations ranged from 40 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the time interviewees had available.

3) Data Limitations

This research attempts to integrate a range of data sets from different sources and whilst we believe the data present in this report is an accurate reflection of onshore fish related activity there are some data limitations.

Integrating the data between ScotMap (under 15m) and VMS (over 15m) was challenging as ScotMap took estimates from fishers on where they fished and what volume and value they attributed to different spatial areas whereas VMS is the exact location of fishing activity which is then tied to log book data. Therefore over 15m is a more accurate representation whilst under 15m is an average estimate from between 2006 to 2011. Whilst we do not believe this has distorted the data to any great degree as they have been cross referenced with FIN landings data for the under 15m fleet (Log book data), proportions attributed to inside the PFOW-SA could have been slightly under or over estimated.

Using data from the Register of Buyers and Sellers has increased our confidence in the Input-Output ( IO) estimates as we were able to cross reference figures between landings recorded in FIN and receipts from buyers. Previously we have relied on landings only which does not allow a breakdown of the data by buyers and therefore we did not know what is staying in or leaving the region. The register has therefore allowed more accurate figures to be input into the IO model, but as already stated we are missing receipts for £11.2m, which we believe is due to overseas sales.