Rob Edwards
Plans to protect endangered porpoises around the Scottish coast have been
blocked by the Scottish Government to help clear the way for new offshore
wind farms, according to internal government emails seen by the Sunday Herald.
Senior wildlife advisors have privately accused the government’s Marine
Scotland directorate of displaying “unwarranted aggression” and being
“untruthful” about its agenda. They also warn that Scottish ministers are
trying “to bend the law as far as possible” and could end up being fined
for breaking European environmental rules.
Marine Scotland has delayed four proposed conservation areas for harbour
porpoises by raising objections to the science. But 48 pages of detailed
email exchanges reveal that officials were worried about “a significant
risk” that a major wind farm planned for the Moray Firth could fail.
Environmental groups have attacked the Scottish Government for allowing the
political drive for wind farms to overrule the science of saving wildlife.
It is “very disappointing” that this has caused Scotland to fall behind the
rest of the UK on protecting harbour porpoises, they say.
In October 2014, the European Commission warned the UK government that it
would be taken to court for failing to designate special areas of
conservation for harbour porpoises. This was seriously compromising moves
to protect the species, the commission said.
In response UK governments began a designation process that ended last week
with proposals for five harbour porpoise conservation areas around England,
Wales and Northern Ireland. But four other areas planned for Scottish
coastal waters were dropped.
One of the areas that was abandoned was in the Moray Firth, around and to
the north of Fraserburgh. This is where two huge offshore wind farms backed
by the Scottish Government are planned, with over 300 turbines.
Other proposed conservation areas that were shelved were in the Minch
between the Isle of Lewis and the coast around Ullapool, and around the
islands of Mull, Jura and Islay. A fourth area has been sliced in half,
with the section next to Northern Ireland retained but the bit off the
southern coast of Galloway expunged.
Committee (JNCC), which works with devolved wildlife agencies, including
Scottish Natural Heritage. But emails from April to November 2015 released
by JNCC disclose that the four Scottish areas were fiercely opposed by
Marine Scotland.
An initial email from a Marine Scotland scientist pointed out that the
proposed designations would “have implications” for wind farms that had
been approved but not yet built. It expressed concerns about the site
selection process.
To JNCC’s surprise, it later became clear that Marine Scotland had launched
a review of the designations, and was questioning aspects of the science
behind them. This resulted in a very difficult meeting on August 17.
“I feel seriously let down by Marine Scotland,” wrote JNCC’s head of marine
advice, Mark Tasker. “I do not feel they are being either truthful or
acting in good faith – and I experienced rather too much unwarranted
aggression today.”
It was “very obvious that the so-called impartial review has been designed
with particular policy objectives in mind,” he said. “I’m sitting on the
train at the moment wondering why I want to carry on working for such people.”
Tasker accused the Scottish Government of wishing “to bend the law as far
as possible”, suggesting that they would be blamed if the European
Commission went to court. He was backed by his director at JNCC, Paul Rose.
In an email on 21 August, Phil Gilmour from Marine Scotland urged JNCC to
attend regular meetings with SSE, the energy company heading one of the
proposed Moray Firth wind farms called Beatrice. “SSE view on Beatrice is
that there is significant risk that their project could fail due to
uncertainty and delay,” he said.
The emails were obtained by Whale and Dolphin Conservation, which campaigns
to protect marine mammals. “The Scottish government appears to be allowing
concerns for the success of offshore wind to drive decisions about
conservation designations,” she said.
“Offshore wind farms and marine wildlife may not be incompatible, but the
uncertainty created by Scotland’s delay in designating porpoise
conservation areas must be a bigger risk to industry.”
Aedán Smith, head of planning for the Royal Society for the Protection of
Birds in Scotland, said ministers had made moves to combat Scotland’s
“woefully inadequate” protection of marine wildlife. “It is therefore very
surprising and concerning that this correspondence appears to show that,
behind the scenes, Scottish Government officials may be contradicting this
approach,” he said.
He accused Marine Scotland of “seeking to avoid following the advice of
their own expert scientific advisers”. It was also “very disappointing that
other parts of the UK now seem to be moving ahead of Scotland on the
protection of marine wildlife,” he added.
Both JNCC and Scottish Natural Heritage stressed that they were still
working with Marine Scotland to try and agree proposed conservation areas
for harbour porpoises. SSE declined to comment, and referred queries to the
Scottish Government.
The Scottish Government stressed it was “fully committed” to having harbour
porpoise conservation areas “where they are fully justified and supported
by the evidence.” Existing measures helped maintain healthy ecosystems for
all marine mammals, a spokeswoman said.
“The four proposals received for Scottish waters did not fully meet the
scientific requirements, which is why Marine Scotland has begun a new
selection process which will progress as quickly and methodically as
possible,” the spokeswoman added.
Harbour porpoises under threat
Harbour porpoises are under threat because they are vulnerable to the
fishing industry, shipping and underwater noise. According to the
government wildlife agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, as many as 400 could
die in the North Sea every year after getting entangled in fishing gear.
Hearing is thought to be their most important sense, and they make clicking
sounds to explore their environment. That means that they can be seriously
disrupted by noise from boats, industrial installations and military firing
practice.
Harbour porpoises are the smallest of the cetacean family, which includes
whales, and can be found in coastal waters around Scotland. They look
similar to dolphins, with round dark grey and white bodies and short heads,
though with smaller fins and no beaks.
They are social animals and can come together in groups of more than 100 to
feed. They eat a wide range of fish including herring, whiting and
sand-eels – and can be eaten by killer whales.
Harbour porpoises are most often seen when they surface to breathe about
four times every 10 to 20 seconds before diving for up to six minutes.
Their breathing makes an audible puffing sound, giving them the nickname
‘puffing pigs’.
In Shetland, this has led to them being called neesiks, the local word for
sneezes. In gaelic they are peileag, and their Latin scientific name is
Phocoena phocoena. Sometimes regarded as elusive animals, they live for 10
to 20 years.
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