Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics 2025

Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics is an Accredited Official Statistics publication produced by the statistics team within the Scottish Government Marine Directorate to provide detailed information on the Scottish fishing industry. The statistics presented in this publication include the:

• Tonnage and value of all landings of sea fish and shellfish by Scottish vessels.
• All landings by any nationality of vessel into Scotland.
• The size and characteristics of Scottish fishing vessels.
• Employment on Scottish vessels.

All landing tonnages are given in terms of live weight equivalent. Overall financial values in the publication text are generally provided adjusted to 2025 prices to account for inflation (real terms). Most of the financial values in the supplementary tables are provided unadjusted for inflation (nominal terms). Year on year percentage changes in financial values are calculated at 2025 prices to adjust for inflation unless otherwise stated.

Comparison to UK Sea Fisheries Statistics

As part of our quality assurance process, information on the tonnage and value landed by Scottish vessels in this publication was compared to the Marine Management Organisation's UK Sea Fisheries Statistics. The total tonnage landed by Scottish vessels anywhere in 2025 differed by 0.02 per cent between the two publications. This can be explained by the fact that the data for the publications was taken from the live database on different dates. The value differs more between the two publications, by about one per cent in total landed value but with some species groups, particularly total demersal, differing more. This is due to differences in currency conversion and treatment of very high and low values. More information can be found in the Scottish sea fisheries statistics: technical manual - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Change to vessel information

This year, we changed the source of vessel information. This has resulted in a decrease in the number of non-fishing vessels and the total number of vessels compared to previous years. The old vessel information system is in the process of being retired and a new system implemented. In the interim a combination of sources is used for the data presented here. More information can be found in the: Scottish sea fisheries statistics: technical manual - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

An Accredited Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

These statistics are accredited official statistics. The Office for Statistics Regulation has independently reviewed and accredited these statistics as complying with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. More information about Scottish Government statistics is available on the Scottish Government website.