Cromarty Firth: Commercial Interests
Industry
The economic base of the Cromarty Firth has been based largely on the winning, processing and transportation of natural resources. Traditionally this involved agriculture, distilling, fisheries and timber. Latterly it has also been closely tied to oil and gas extraction, mainly through related construction and processing plant and the Nigg Oil Terminal. The Firth is well-placed to service the North Sea oil fields and has played a key role in their development. The build-up of infrastructure and its tying in to the wider national transport network has created a valuable base from which the area is able to compete for work in the Atlantic oil fields.
The Highland Region Structure Plan (2001) safeguards two large-scale industrial sites on the shores of the Firth at Nigg (for nationally significant petrochemical development) and at Delny (for future development proposals) with strategic industrial and business development sites promoted at Evanton Highland Deephaven and Alness Point Business Park. Other industrial/business sites at Alness, Dingwall, Dornoch, Tain, Evanton and Invergordon. The Simplified Planning Zone (SPZ) scheme adopted by the Regional Council in December 1994, has promoted business and industrial development and provides a useful marketing tool for inward investment. The SPZ relates to 52 ha of land in Alness and a further 85 ha at Invergordon and was designated in consultation with a range of interests, including SNH. It includes the granting of planning permission for land reclamation works on inter-tidal land at the port of Invergordon.
Shipping
The Cromarty Firth Port has a capability to berth ships of up to 55,000 - 150,000 tonnes deadweight at the Nigg oil terminal - and turns round 250,000 tonnes of bulk and other cargo each year.Vessels using Cromarty Firth facilities fall into the following categories:-
1) oil rigs, other semi-submersible types, and jack-ups
2) oil related service vessels (anchor handlers, supply boats, sub-sea support vessels, pipe-reeling vessel, crane ships etc)
3) passenger cruise liners
4) Nigg Oil Terminal tankers
5) cargo vessels, reefers and short-sea bulk cargo
6) fishing vessels
Passenger cruise liners have now average at around eighteen per year. Cruise liners over the last summer were larger, carrying more people thus having an impact on shore excursions and land based tourist facilities. Seven of these large cruise liners visited for the first time, one of which, the World, attracted thousands of people to Invergordon.
Nigg Oil Terminal tankers have increased in number considerably due to the Beatrice traffic being supplemented by incoming shuttle tankers from Kerr McGees Gryphon Field, and the subsequent re-export of these cargoes. Category 6 vessels remain reasonably constant from year to year importing road salt, fertiliser, pipes, oil related equipment, fishmeal, bunkers, coal, malting barley, malt, shotblast, cut timber, and minor other cargoes. Export cargoes mainly consist of scrap, wheat, seed potatoes, barley and frozen fish. Fishing vessels are occasional users of the Firth - up to fifteen a month in season.
To give picture of the productivity of the Firth, during 2002, 528 ships arrived in the Cromarty Firth, the number of oil drilling rigs coming into the Firth totalled twenty six, adding to the three undergoing inspection from 2001. Eight rigs were moored in Port and fifteen in the Firth. There were two visits from the large semi-submersible heavy lift cargo carriers, thirty two tankers handled 2.4 million tonnes of crude oil at Nigg, the Norwegian sail training ship paid four visits and significant shipments of steel pipe for the spool base left from Highland Deephaven.
Fisheries
The following section is based on information supplied by the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD) and Conon District Salmon Fishery Boards.Currently there are no significant demersal fisheries in the Cromarty Firth. Similarly no significant fishing for pelagic species takes place. There is no longer shellfish production in the Cromarty Firth but there is interest in the mussel bank resource. This resource has yet to be explored and investigated. There were two salmon farms, one trout farm and two salmonid hatcheries in, or adjacent to, the Cromarty Firth. The trout and salmon sites still exist and leases are in place, but they are not currently operating.
Interests in the wild salmon stocks of the Cromarty Firth and its tributaries are represented by the Conon District Salmon Fishery Board, which have a statutory responsibility for the protection and improvement of Atlantic salmon and sea trout in their district. The Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory, Pitlochry undertakes research in support of these aims as they apply to all District Salmon Fishery Boards.
The main concerns of the District Salmon Fisheries Boards in the Cromarty Firth are water quality, obstacles hindering migration, predation and salmon poaching. Concerns have also been expressed that dredging or marine construction works may also affect salmon migratory behaviour. From June to September, the Boards run constant patrols, both shore and sea based, in an effort to pick up illegal nets. On average some 15 nets per annum are uplifted and one or two arrests made.
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