Activists hold silent protest outside Scottish Parliament ahead of debate on guga hunt
MSPs will consider a petition this week that calls for a ban on the hunt.
Campaigners protesting against Scotland’s last seabird hunt staged a silent demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament as a petition calling for the practice to end surpassed 100,000 signatures.
Activists from Protect the Wild stood at Holyrood with their mouths taped over holding placards reading “Don’t Silence Us”, in a gesture to illustrate their concerns that public opposition to the hunt could be ignored when MSPs consider the petition later this week.
The protest comes before a meeting of the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee on Wednesday, when members will decide whether to close the petition or carry it forward to the next parliament following May’s elections.
The campaign centres on the annual guga hunt, in which men from the Isle of Lewis travel to the remote Atlantic outcrop of Sula Sgeir to kill hundreds of young gannets, known locally as guga, for food.
The birds are taken while still flightless and the meat is considered a traditional delicacy in parts of the Western Isles.
Killing seabirds is generally illegal in Britain, but the hunt continues under a legal exemption in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which specifically permits the taking of gannets from Sula Sgeir for human consumption as part of historical practice.
Protect the Wild argues that the exemption is outdated and should be removed. The organisation claims the petition, lodged by wildlife photographer Rachel Bigsby, has become one of the most signed in the Scottish Parliament’s history and the largest relating to animal welfare.
Devon Docherty, the group’s Scottish campaigns manager, said the number of signatures demonstrated overwhelming public support for change.
She said: “More than 100,000 people have now spoken out against the guga hunt, sending a clear message that it’s time for this cruel practice to end.
“This petition is by far the biggest this government has seen, the fourth most signed in Scottish history, and the single largest petition relating to animal welfare in Scotland. To shut it down now would be profoundly undemocratic.”
Ms Docherty argued that the killing of gannet chicks could no longer be justified on cultural grounds.
“Killing them in the name of tradition, especially when that tradition is no longer necessary for survival, is completely out of touch,” she said.
Recent polling commissioned by the campaign group from the research company FindOutNow found that 69 per cent of Scots who expressed a view supported removing the legal exemption allowing the hunt, while 72 per cent said they did not consider it culturally important.
Supporters of the hunt, however, argue that it forms a longstanding part of island heritage.
NatureScot, the Scottish Government’s nature agency, said the activity remained legal under existing legislation and was tightly regulated through a licensing system.
A spokesperson said: “We understand there are strong feelings about the guga hunt, and that some people will disagree with it taking place. The hunt is recognised in law under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, which makes specific provision for the granting of a licence for the purpose of providing food for human consumption in relation to the gannets on the island of Sula Sgeir.
“Our role is to make licensing decisions based on the most recent scientific evidence.”
The agency said that after bird flu outbreaks in recent years, it reduced the maximum number of birds that could be taken from 2,000 to 500.
The spokesperson said: “In 2025 we received our first licence application from the Men of Ness since 2021.
“A licence was granted on the condition that all birds must be killed humanely. This ensures the gannet population on Sula Sgeir remains stable for the future.”
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