Yesterday's decision by NatureScot to obliterate a thousand years of island tradition by banning the Guga Hunt is part of a modern harrying of the Highlanders, according to Scotland's Columnist of the Year Kevin Mackenna writing in the Herald newspaper in Glasgow today (Tuesday August 4).
He is strongly critical of the decision by NatureScot "an absurdly contrived quango tasked with guarding Scotland’s heritage, to refuse permission for the annual guga (young gannet) hunt on the uninhabited island of Sula Sgeir, 40 miles north of Ness.
"These expeditions have been a feature of life in this community for around 1,000 years and are already highly regulated. Only a few hundred birds are taken, and there is no real threat to the sustainability of the gannet population, as NatureScot claims," McKenna says in the article.
"Their decision bore all the hallmarks of a modern Scottish public body captured by the need to impose an ideology on those they consider to be educationally and culturally beneath them.
"It featured unspecified complaints from unnamed “stakeholders”, a campaign to portray an entire community as savages, and a refusal even to deign to visit the place and speak to locals.
"Other Highland and Island communities have long been familiar with this absolute disdain for their way of life and ignorance of their history."
Scottish Labour MSP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Donald MacKinnon, has expressed his disappointment at the decision taken by the board of NatureScot.
Mr MacKinnon along with local MP Torcuil Crichton joined the applicants and members of the community in Ness yesterday afternoon to watch the online board meeting.
Mr MacKinnon said “This is a very disappointing outcome and comes after months of intense abuse directed at the community and individuals from protesters.
“It was clear from the board discussion that there are questions around the population modelling used to arrive at the recommendation and the subsequent decision to reject the application.
“The inclusion of theoretical future culls in the model when the application was for a licence for a single event seems particularly problematic as does the fact that the 2026 count figures are not yet included in the model.”
Mr MacKinnon added “NatureScot must now engage directly with the Men of Ness to find a way forward.
“It is crucial that NatureScot now work to strike a balance between maintaining a sustainable population of gannets on Sula Sgeir and allowing guga to be harvested in the future. This will demand a pragmatic approach and collaboration between stakeholders.
“The cultural significance of the hunt was completely absent from the decision taken today. That should not be the case when future licence applications are considered. There was deep hurt in that room in Ness today."
Meanwhile, mainland-based protest groups celebrated the decision but said that since it only affects this year, their campaign would continue. Devon Docherty, Scottish Campaigns Manager at Protect the Wild, said: “The fight is far from over. The Gannets of Sula Sgeir are not safe until the Scottish Parliament removes the law that allows the Guga hunt to continue, and our campaign is going nowhere until that outcome is achieved.” The Guga hunt is the UK’s last remaining seabird hunt, allowed by an exemption in section 16 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
A Scottish Parliament petition to abolish the Guga hunt has already attracted more than 100,000 signatures, making it one of the most signed petitions in the Parliament's history.
The petition remains under consideration by the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee, which is expected to determine its next steps in the coming months.
Decision report here
