Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics 2024

2.4 Total Allowable Catches quota and uptake

Total Allowable Catches (TAC) are limits set at annual international negotiations for individual fish stocks and represent the maximum of each fish stock that can be caught. Up until 2020, while the UK was still a member of the European Union (EU) the majority of stocks were managed and fished only by EU member states. Member States’ access to management and fishing of stocks were based on a number of factors, including historic track record. The TACs for these stocks were set by the European Commission through internal negotiations between EU member states with an interest and based on independent scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).

The remaining stocks were managed and shared with other Coastal States: Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Russia, with TACs for these set at separate negotiations. The amounts corresponding to this share, known as quotas, are shown at the UK and at the Scottish Producers Organisations’ (POs) level in tables 33 to 36. Some Scottish vessels are not within Scottish Producer Organisations and Scottish Producer Organisations can contain some UK but non-Scottish vessels. This means that the totals in table 37, which relate to Scottish vessels may not agree with the totals from tables 33 to 36, which relate to Scottish Producer Organisations.

Uptake of key commercial quota stocks by all Scottish vessels by tonnage and value landed are presented in table 37.

In general, Scottish POs had high quota uptake in 2024 for key demersal and pelagic species. Uptake of mackerel stocks in the North Sea was 99 per cent and uptake of mackerel stocks in the West of Scotland was 100 per cent[7].

For demersal stocks, uptake in the North Sea was generally high with cod quota uptake at 100 per cent and monkfish at 90 per cent. West of Scotland cod has a nil quota and is managed as a bycatch.

The only shellfish species subject to quota is Nephrops. In 2024, Scottish PO quota uptake for North Sea Nephrops was 53 per cent and for West Coast Nephrops it was 77 per cent.

2.5 The Scottish Sustainable Fishing Indicator

The aim of the Scottish Sustainable Fishing Indicator is to provide a single measure per year to indicate the assessed confidence that the relevant commercial fish and shellfish stocks in Scottish waters are being fished sustainably.

In 2023 the estimate of the Scottish Sustainable Fishing Indicator was 73%. 

Chart 6. Scottish Sustainable Fishing Indicator decreased from 52% in 1983 to 39% in 1995, before increasing to a high of 73% in 2023.

Scottish Sustainable Fishing Indicator, 1983 to 2023.

The Sustainable Fishing Indicator is based on scientific estimates about different fish and shellfish stocks. The estimates are also used by international fishing authorities to agree how much of key species can be caught each year. The aim of this is to prevent over fishing and maintain sustainable fisheries. In the UK, this amount is known as Quota and information on this is reported in this publication (section 2.4).

Stocks are included in the indicator analysis if they are present within Scottish waters and if sufficient information is available about the stock. The indicator has been calculated for the years 1983 to 2023 and covers 38 stocks, although not all stocks were included in the some of the earlier years due to lack of stock information.

The indicator is calculated for each stock and a simple mean is taken to provide a single Scottish Sustainstable Fishing Indicator.

It is derived by comparing the following different sustainability estimates about each stock:

• The fishing mortality indicator estimates whether the rate of fishing is at a level that is low enough to enable the stocks to replenish, or to recover to similar or greater levels within one year.
• The spawning stock biomass indicator estimates whether the number of mature fish or shellfish is suficient to replenish the stock so that it has a stable or increasing population.

The list of selected fish stocks, technical definitions and methodology for calculating the sustainable fishing indicator are available in the Scottish Sustainable Fishing Indicator technical report in supporting files of this publication. 

2.6 Where Scottish vessels land their fish

Scottish vessels land their catches into Scotland, the rest of the UK and several countries abroad. In 2024, Scottish vessels landed 210 thousand tonnes of sea fish and shellfish worth £207 million abroad.

Chart 7. Scottish vessels landed 69 per cent of their catch by value, worth £526 million in 2024, into Scotland. A further 17 per cent by value, worth £126 million in 2024, was landed into Norway.

Top countries Scottish vessels landed their catch into by value (millions of pounds), in 2024.

Data source: Table 4, Table 5, Table 8, Table 23.

Landings abroad accounted for 37 per cent of all landings by Scottish vessels by tonnage and 27 per cent by value. Of this, 96 per cent of the tonnage landed abroad was pelagic.

The main species landed abroad was mackerel, representing 63 per cent of the total value of fish landed abroad in 2024. There were 83 thousand tonnes of mackerel worth £130 million landed abroad, which is 43 per cent of the total tonnage and 46 per cent of the value of mackerel landed by Scottish vessels.

Norway is by far the largest destination for Scottish vessels’ landings abroad, accounting for 17 per cent by value of all Scottish vessels’ landings and 61 per cent by value of all landings abroad by Scottish vessels. In 2024, 85 per cent of the value of landings into Norway was for mackerel, amounting to 69 thousand tonnes with a value of £108 million.

2.7 Area of capture

Scottish vessels are most active in two main ICES areas[8] : the Northern North Sea (ICES Area 4a) and the West Coast of Scotland (ICES Area 6a).

In 2024, 291 thousand tonnes of sea fish and shellfish with a value of £432 million were landed from the Northern North Sea (4a), representing 52 per cent of the tonnage and 57 per cent of the value of all landings by Scottish vessels (Table 28). 26 per cent of landings by Scottish vessels, by tonnage were caught in the West Coast of Scotland (6a), providing 27 per cent of the total value of all Scottish landings. Area 7 accounted for 11 per cent of the tonnage of all landings and six per cent of value.

[1] Values are based on 2024 prices and percentage changes reflect real changes after adjusting for inflation. The deflator applied can be found here: GDP deflators at market prices, and money GDP June 2025 (Quarterly National Accounts) - GOV.UK

[2] Percentages are based on unrounded data and may differ from calculations using rounded data in tables.

[3] Values may not sum to their respective totals due to rounding.

[4] The values in Table 27. Scottish vessels’ landings by gear type are slightly lower than Table 8, because some Nephrops are also caught by demersal gear types. Other species may also be affected by this.