Naturescot has once again stood on the side of cruelty rather than environmental protection, granting the licence for the Guga hunt. A "tradition" of killing of 500 juvenile gannets of the isle Sula Sgeir in Scotland. This is a tradition dragged onwards from the C15th and like the whaling and egg collecting that once dotted the shore, once came out of need but now has now dragged on as a "fun" reinactment of the historic for the sake of tradion. 

Sula Sgeir is a otherwise uninhabited remote nature reserve home to 10,000 gannets In the peak breeding season. Gannetts too, are one of the largest sea birds in the Atlantic and are on the amber list in the UK as a moderate conservation concern. Like with many seabirds on a national level it is otherwise completly illegal to kill or harm them. So why the contradiction?. Why must 500 be killed this year? 

Having battled through recent bouts of avain flu and just begining to flourish again, the birds that pair for life now have to go through a traumatic disturbance and hunt. They have to loose In what should be soon the moment of fledging 500 of it's young killed by the hands of men. Hanged by ropes and poles they will be grabbed at random and beaten by a club to the head to be salted, brined and to returned to Ness as a scarce delicacy. 

500 deaths and two weeks disturbances of wildlife for the sake of tradion. For the sake of a few lottery selected men to trail their survival skills and kill what otherwise is a protected bird. A tradion that contridicts Naturscots values. Naturescot understands this to be a contradictory tradition even lowering the number of licensed killings from 2000 in the last hunt of 2021, to 500 this year. So let's make this 500 the last. Not 400 next year and perhaps a few less next but this be the last Guga hunt. Let's give this isle the protection and recognition it deserves and end all hunting on the reserve. 

Together Let us end one of Scotland's greatest contradictions and hold Naturescot accountable to "make space for nature" rather than Acceptions and excuses for the sake of the few.