Pressures on large harbours

North-east Scotland’s major fisheries harbours, Peterhead, Fraserburgh and Aberdeen, play a central role in the UK seafood economy, supporting some of the country’s busiest fishing fleets and highest-value landings. However, despite their strategic importance, these harbours face a growing set of operational and environmental pressures that threaten their long-term resilience. Infrastructure constraints, funding shortfalls, volatile fish landings, and increasing competition for marine space all influence how effectively these ports can function as hubs for fishing activity and associated industries.

Many harbours around NE Scotland require modernisation and expansion to cope with increasing vessel sizes and to support not only fishing but also related industries (e.g., processing, offshore energy logistics). Some facilities, such as Fraserburgh Harbour’s berths and fish market quays, are too shallow for larger vessels at low tide, forcing some landings to be diverted to Peterhead instead. This creates capacity pressure and highlights the need for deeper, expanded quaysides and modern infrastructure. Expansion plans are underway (e.g., increasing Fraserburgh’s quayside from 170 m to 742 m) precisely to address these capacity constraints (Fraserburgh Harbour, 2025). 

Harbour authorities and local stakeholders have raised concerns about the insufficient allocation of national fishing funding relative to the economic importance of Scotland’s fisheries. For example, Fraserburgh Harbour leaders criticised a new UK fishing fund for being apportioned based on population rather than actual fishing landings, arguing that this could jeopardise up to a third of jobs in the town, including in processing and vessel support services that depend on the harbour’s operations (Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, 2025).

Peterhead overwhelmingly dominates fish landings in North East Scotland, with volumes rising from around 155,000 tonnes in 2020 to over 216,000 tonnes in 2024, and the value of landings increasing from £165 million to nearly £249 million over the same period. Fraserburgh is the second-largest port, with landings fluctuating year to year but growing overall—from 14,389 tonnes in 2020 to just over 20,000 tonnes in 2024, and value increasing from £25 million to £36 million. Aberdeen handles comparatively small volumes, with landings decreasing slightly from 861 tonnes in 2020 to 714 tonnes in 2024, and values remaining stable at around £3.7–4.0 million. Overall, the data highlight Peterhead’s continued dominance, Fraserburgh’s gradual growth, and Aberdeen’s consistently low but stable contribution to regional landings (Table 1).