Surfbirds News

Malcolm Wicks, Energy Minister announced today that whilst Cardigan Bay, also a Special Area of Conservation for bottlenose dolphins would be spared, oil and gas exploration in the Moray Firth was likely to go ahead.

Bottlenose Dolphin, Moray Firth © Mark Priest, from the Surfbirds galleries

Emily Lewis-Brown of WWF said "The dolphins in each site can be expected to be impacted by oil and gas activities in the same way and both sites are protected under the same EU law. WWF calls upon the Government not to license for oil and gas near or in either dolphin protected area."

The licences in the Firth are to be allowed despite scientific evidence that clearly demonstrates that oil and gas activities can disturb marine mammals and in some cases be lethal.

Bottlenose Dolphin, Moray Firth © Mark Priest, from the Surfbirds galleries

Mark Simmonds, Director of Science for WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said. "At worst this could dramatically impact the dolphins' chance of survival in the Firth, and in combination with other threats could even drive this unique population towards extinction. If we lose these dolphins we may never get them back, the Government has let us all down if they allow this to go ahead in a dedicated and supposedly protected critical habitat."

The announcement comes on the same day another branch of Government announced its intention to give special protected status to seven offshore European Marine Sites in the UK's seas.

The DEFRA, Marine, Landscape and Rural Affairs Minister, Jonathan Shaw, was quoted as saying: "The UK has one of the richest marine environments in the world. We want to bring conservation standards at sea up to the level of those that we have on land, to give greater protection to sea life."

While these European Marine Sites will cover only a miniscule area of sea (less than 0.012% of the UK's seas) at last implementing European legislation from 1992, this was a move welcomed by conservationists, as a first small step on the road to proper protection for our important marine wildlife.

Dr Sharon Thompson from the RSPB said: "Is this a case of the left hand not knowing that the right hand was supposed to be protecting these sites? We're calling for a Marine Bill to introduce legislation to better protect marine wildlife, but to actually make a difference, we would expect that or any existing conservation legislation to be effective."

Melissa Moore, Senior Policy Officer at the Marine Conservation Society said: "This Government needs to re-think it's priorities at sea. This strongly suggests it will be 'business as usual' not protection in the seven new European Marine Sites."