Ban the guga hunt. Calling for an end to the licensed killing of young gannets on Sula Sgeir, Scotland.

It is July 2025, and I am shaking with disbelief. NatureScot has granted permission for a group of people to sail to Sula Sgeir (Gaelic for Gannet Skerry), a remote and uninhabited island north of the Isle of Lewis, to kill 500 juvenile gannets, young birds taken before they have ever flown.

This brutal practice, carried out in the name of tradition, sees chicks torn from nests after months of devoted care. Their parents, having miraculously survived the devastation of avian flu, have weathered storms, scarcity and shifting seas to raise them, only for those chicks to be slaughtered before their wings ever touch open air.

This is not just outdated. It is barbaric.

In the midst of a climate and biodiversity crisis, when seabird populations have already plummeted by 30-60% across the UK, how can we possibly justify this? The gannets of Sula Sgeir are part of an interconnected web of colonies, already under siege from pollution, plastic, bycatch and collapsing fish stocks. Yet even now, even in the wake of such loss, we sanction more.

Why I’m calling for an end to the gannet hunt on Sula Sgeir

On a personal level, gannets are my favourite bird. My heart hurts that northern gannets have suffered catastrophic losses since 2022, with avian flu wiping out between 30–60% of their populations in the UK. In the UK they are listed under the Birds of Conservation Concern and are on the amber list. These aren’t just statistics, as someone who has visited seabird colonies across the British Isles, I’ve seen it with my own eyes, empty nesting sites on cliffs, a scarcity of young birds so easily identified by their dark navy plumage and eerily quieter colonies where overwhelming chaos engulfed you.

On the uninhabited island of Sula Sgeir, 40 miles north of the Isle of Lewis, there remains a vulnerable colony of around 11,000 breeding pairs, though this may be citing 2016 data which is pre-bird flu as I can’t find any reference to any more recent data. Despite the visible impacts of avian flu, a licence has been granted by NatureScot for the 2025 hunt of 500 juvenile gannets, known as guga.

Gannets don’t breed until they are between 4 and 7 years old, and only about 30% of chicks survive to breeding age. Every single fledgling matters. Against the backdrop of the avian flu impact, that still continues to be an issue, I do not understand how this can be a sustainable population.

To hunt 500 young birds from an already fragile population is not only reckless, it is ecologically indefensible.

The cumulative harm humans already cause gannets

Gannets are already under immense pressure from human actions. Their lives are threatened daily by:

• Plastic entanglement
• Ingestion of ocean microplastics
• Bioaccumulation of forever chemicals, reducing fertility
• Bycatch in industrial fishing
• Collisions with offshore wind farms
• Disruption to food chains caused by overfishing and warming seas driven by climate breakdown

And now, 10 men will be permitted to kill 500 of them under the veil of tradition.

Tradition cannot be a shield for ecological harm

We are not living in the 1500s. In an age of climate crisis, rising and heating seas and species collapse, tradition cannot be used as a shield for harm. When we uphold outdated practices that directly contradict climate and biodiversity goals, we expose the cracks in our systems, the ways colonialism, patriarchy and extractive mindsets continue to shape our laws, cultures and blind spots.

This isn’t just about birds. It’s about how systems of power and violence continue to legitimise harm against nature. The conquest and control of wild creatures, the assumption that they are there for human taking, is a worldview rooted in colonisation and upheld by patriarchal values. It is time to choose differently.

How has this licence been granted?

A 2016 Scottish Natural Heritage report already showed Sula Sgeir’s population was growing at a slower rate than other colonies and only showing overall growth that was bolstered by immigration from neighbouring colonies. It explicitly warned:

“Given that the analysis presented here indicates exchange between Scottish colonies, the removal of individuals from one colony would seem very likely to have effects on other connected colonies… Harvesting from Sula Sgeir has in the past, and likely will in future, also have effects on other populations.”

Yet despite this, NatureScot has stated:

“This revised limit for 2025 safeguards the sustainability of the Sula Sgeir gannet population and allows for its continued recovery following avian flu.”

This raises serious questions: What data is this decision based on? There appears to be no publicly accessible, post-avian flu survey of Sula Sgeir. If this decision relies on 2016 data, how can anyone reasonably claim this hunt won’t impact population recovery?

This feels like a number chosen to appease a cultural tradition, not one based in ecological reality.

What I’m calling for

I am calling on the Scottish Government to:

• Revoke the licence for the 2025 gannet hunt
• Review the exception under Section 16 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
• Fund and publish independent, up-to-date surveys of Sula Sgeir and other gannet colonies
• End the legal precedent that allows outdated traditions to override urgent ecological reality

This isn’t about shame or blame. It’s about choosing to evolve in a time of crisis. It’s about understanding that the survival of these birds and the ecosystems they are part of matters more than preserving a cultural rite at any cost.

Let this moment be a turning point, not a quiet step toward further loss.

Update – 31st July 2025 – NatureScot have issued a statement:
31 July 2025

NatureScot Director, Robbie Kernahan, said:

“We understand there are very strong feelings about the guga hunt, and that some people will disagree with it taking place. The cultural significance of the hunt is recognised in law under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. This is why a licence exists for the activity. To be clear, our role is to implement legislation in a balanced and reasonable way. We must assess any application against the licensing tests set out under the legislation, and crucially whether the guga hunt can take place with the long-term Sula Sgeir gannet population remaining stable.

This is the first year we have received a licence application from the Men of Ness since 2021. We have carefully assessed the application and have significantly reduced the number of birds that can be taken from 2,000 to 500 this year. This figure is based on scientific evidence which shows the Sula Sgeir gannet population will remain viable in the long-term with this limit. This is based on the most recent survey data collected from Sula Sgeir in 2024, post-bird flu.

We are also aware of the concerns about animal welfare and want to stress that it is a condition of our licence that birds should be killed humanely.”

Today’s statement from NatureScot regarding the Guga Hunt raises more questions than it answers.

While acknowledging “strong feelings” around the issue, it fails to offer any transparency about the scientific evidence used to justify the killing of 500 juvenile gannets, despite the species being amber-listed and severely impacted by avian flu in recent years.

It frames the three-year gap as though it’s a sign of restraint, honour or credit to the hunters, when in truth, it’s most likely a reflection of the devastating collapse of seabird colonies due to avian flu. And now, barely a few years into fragile recovery, with avian flu still present, the killing resumes.

We are told the 2025 licence is based on 2024 survey data that claims the Sula Sgeir population can remain “viable.” But that term is subjective and unexplained. Where is the data? What methodology was used? What is the threshold for “viability” in a colony that has already been severely disrupted?

NatureScot’s role is not simply to uphold outdated legislative allowances, but to demonstrate ecological leadership in a time of biodiversity crisis. Their statement defers responsibility rather than engaging with the ethical, ecological and reputational cost of continuing this practice.

Reducing the quota from 2,000 to 500 may sound like progress, but it is not. Every chick matters in a species that is already in decline. Each fledgling represents the extraordinary labour of two parents who may have survived avian flu, only to have their chick taken before its first flight.

This is not a balanced or reasonable approach. It is a failure of precaution in a time that demands courage.

We call again for:

• The immediate release of the scientific evidence used to justify the licence
• An independent ecological review of Sula Sgeir’s current colony status
• A permanent end to the Guga Hunt licence from 2026 onwards

The public has a right to transparency, and Scotland’s seabirds have a right to live. We are told the chicks are killed humanely. But how do you humanely kill a fledgling seabird? A bird that has never flown. That was raised for months by parents who survived bird flu. That is pulled from a cliff, a matter of days or weeks from flight, and killed before it ever knows the sky.

What is humane about that?

This language is designed to dull our discomfort. But we should feel uncomfortable. Because this isn’t tradition, it’s licensed cruelty. And it needs to end.