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| Longstanding breeding site for Gannets - the remote island of Sula Sgeir (photo: John Macfarlane via Wikimedia Commons) |
THE Scottish Parliament has put on hold a decision on whether to ban the annual 'harvesting' of young Gannets (known as 'guga') on the island of Sula Sgeir, some 40 miles off Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.
MSPs decided to postpone debate at least until after the elections in May this year.
Almost 80,000 individuals are said to have put their signatures to a petition calling for an end to the practice which, under special licence from NatureScot, allows for up to 500 fledglings per season to be taken for subsequent consumption as a 'delicacy'.
The petition was launched by wildlife photographer Rachel Bigsby and a pressure group called Protect the Wild.
Says Ms Bigby: "Scotland holds some of the most internationally important Gannet colonies on Earth, yet one of them is still excluded from the basic protection that applies everywhere else.
"After the devastating losses caused by avian influenza, the continued licensed bludgeoning of Gannet chicks on Sula Sgeir cannot be justified by conservation, science or animal welfare standards."
However, there is also another view - expressed by John Macleod in a column in The Daily Telegraph - that the activity should be respected and preserved as a longstanding Gaelic tradition.
Mr Macleod describes those opposed to the hunt - who include celebrity naturalist Chris Packham - as "sentimentalists" and "virtue-signallers".
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| Rachel Bigsby: 'bludgeoning cannot be justified' |
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| John Macleod's column in The Daily Telegraph |
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