Bird-suited protesters descend on NatureScot as board discusses guga hunt

Protesters dressed as gannet birds gathered outside NatureScot’s headquarters in Inverness on Thursday 2 July, as the agency’s board met to discuss the guga hunt.

The guga hunt is the annual killing of young gannet seabirds on the remote Scottish island of Sula Sgeir. The chicks are slaughtered and sold for a local delicacy as part of a long-standing tradition on the Isle of Lewis.

It can only happen if Scotland’s nature agency grants a licence for it. The practice has become increasingly controversial, with campaigners arguing the guga hunt is cruel, outdated and incompatible with modern conservation standards.

NatureScot board members were due to discuss the process for assessing the licence application ahead of a final decision in early August.

From 9am, protesters assembled outside Great Glen House armed with megaphones. They led a series of chants including:

NatureScot, shame, shame – gannets killed in your name.

They wore white suits and gannet head masks, symbolising the birds at the centre of the controversial hunt.

NatureScot under pressure on guga hunt

Campaigners say this is the first time decisions about the guga hunt have escalated to NatureScot’s senior leadership. It follows months of high-profile campaigning, national media coverage and growing public scrutiny of Britain’s last remaining seabird hunt.

Protect the Wild is one of the main organisations campaigning to end the guga hunt. It said the demonstration aimed to ensure NatureScot’s board heard “loud and clear” that it:

will not get away with quietly signing away the lives of gannets.

Speaking at the protest, Devon Docherty, Scottish campaigns manager at Protect the Wild, said:

Our petition calling on NatureScot to stop the guga hunt is now approaching a quarter of a million signatures – by far the biggest expression of public opinion they’ve ever received.

NatureScot’s board has a duty to act in the public interest, and the public have made their position unmistakable – bashing seabird chicks to death is not acceptable. So our message today is simple: do your job, protect wildlife and stop the guga hunt.

Scotland is home to almost half of the world’s northern gannet population. This makes it one of the most important countries on earth for the survival of this species. However, gannets are on the UK’s Birds of Conservation Concern amber list because of growing concerns about their long-term stability.

Protect the Wild said licensing a hunt of the birds under these circumstances would be “unconscionable”.

A final decision on whether to grant the guga hunt licence is expected to be made at a separate Board meeting in early August.

You can sign the petition to NatureScot here.

Featured image via Protect the Wild