Small but mighty Aith

There's always something fishy in the voe

- Marsali Taylor

Fishing has been Shetland's main industry since the days of the Vikings: the first longhouse dwellers supplied dried fish to boats on their way to Iceland and Greenland. In the Middle Ages, there was trade with boats from Norway, the Netherlands and all round the Baltic. Lerwick and Baltasound hosted huge herring fleets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Now the fishing industry includes aquaculture, and still brings in double the money of Sullom Voe oil and gas terminal, agriculture and tourism combined.

Shetland is Scotland's second biggest port in terms of tonnage of fish landed, but that doesn't include the eight pelagic vessels which catch a huge handful, sell it online to Norway or Ireland and deliver it there. I don’t see them in our vote, of course, but there's plenty of other activity. Nearly every boat in the marina is used for fishing, some commercially, with reels on top of the wheelhouse for long lines of hooks, or taking lobsters and velvet crabs for the Christmas market, and the rest fish for fun. I'm the only one who's fussy about getting scales over her clean fibreglass.