More vessels but April’s gross tonnage is well down on last year

Lerwick Harbour saw a big reduction in shipping tonnage during April compared with the same month last year – although the number of arrivals was actually up slightly.

A total of 305 vessels called, compared with 298 in April 2019, but the overall tonnage dropped from 795,593 to 458,913grt.

The deficit was partly due to no cruise ships calling (64,730grt) last year, although ferries, live fish carriers and oil traffic were all also down considerably.

The April arrivals this year included 149 fishing boats, 65 workboats/tenders, 39 ro/ro ferries, 23 live fish carriers, eight oil boats, eight tugs, five tankers, five ferries and three pilot boats.

The fishing vessels comprised 111 Shetland, 32 British, three Danish, two French and one Norwegian boat.

For the first four months of the year the overall number of arrivals at Lerwick holds up reasonably well with 2019 – 1,320 as compared to 1,344 in 2019. The tonnage is down to 2,421,435 from 2,755,499grt.