Fishing and aquaculture (SIC division 03)
Division 03 of the UK SIC 2007 list. It holds 3 codes, listed in full below with the number of active UK companies filed under each.
What sits in division 03
This division covers catching fish and growing them. Marine fishing, 03110, is the bulk of it and is overwhelmingly owner-operated: a boat, a skipper and a limited company formed around the two. Freshwater fishing sits in 03120, and 03210 covers marine aquaculture, which in the UK means salmon and shellfish farms concentrated on the Scottish coast. Almost every company here files its code in first position, which makes the division an unusually clean filter by manufacturing standards.
Marine insurance brokers and vessel finance firms work this division hardest, because a boat is the single largest asset most of these businesses will ever buy. Fuel suppliers, gear and net merchants, cold chain and processing buyers all sell here too. A recent incorporation usually means a deckhand has bought their own boat, and the insurance, the finance and the catch buyer are all chosen in the same few weeks. Accountants who understand the tonnage and quota rules are scarce, which makes them worth finding.
How to read a division 03 code
A UK SIC code is five digits and division 03 is the first two of them. Everything filed under 03 shares those digits: all 3 codes below begin 03, then the third digit narrows to a group, the fourth to a class and the fifth to the subclass a company actually picks. Division 03 sits inside section A, agriculture, forestry and fishing, which is the broadest tier of the classification. So a code is read left to right, from an industry down to a specific activity.
More on how division 03 codes are built
Companies choose their own codes at incorporation and can change them on any confirmation statement, and Companies House does not check the answer. A company may list up to four. That is worth knowing before you treat any division total as a headcount: the numbers here are what companies said about themselves, on the August 2026 register, and the largest single code in this division is 03110, marine fishing.
Working division 03 as a list
Division 03 holds 3 codes and 3,643 active companies between them. One code carries most of it: 03110 accounts for 61 per cent on its own, and the other 2 codes account for the rest. Filtering by the whole division is therefore close to filtering by 03110 with a tail attached, so start from the code and widen only if the list runs dry.
More on working division 03
A caveat that matters more in some divisions than others: a company may register up to four SIC codes, and the figures below count every position, not just the first. A business filed under two codes in this division appears under both. Treat the totals as reach rather than a headcount, and if you need a clean list, filter to companies whose FIRST code sits in the division. Every company you pull carries the Companies House record, the director's name, a verified website and a verified email, and the ones we cannot complete are not charged.
Every SIC code in division 03
Prospecting this division
Division 03 companies, as leads
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Division 03 questions
Does a fishing company's SIC code affect its quota or licence?
No. SIC codes are statistical labels and carry no permissions. Quota and vessel licensing are handled by the Marine Management Organisation and its devolved equivalents, entirely separately from Companies House. Your registered code does not appear in that process. Insurers and lenders do read it, so keeping it accurate saves questions at renewal.
Should a shellfish farm use 03210 or a food manufacturing code?
Use 03210 marine aquaculture if you are growing the stock. If you mainly buy in and process, a division 10 food code fits better. Businesses that do both should list both, since a company may hold up to four codes. Companies House does not check the choice and you can change it on any confirmation statement.
Find companies across division 03
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