Wildlife campaigners target NatureScot in noisy protest against Guga hunt outside Edinburgh conference
Wildlife group aim to halt killing of 2,000 gannet chicks
Wildlife campaigners staged a noisy protest outside an Edinburgh conference venue to demand an end to the annual Guga hunt, which sees up to 2,000 young gannets killed.
Animal welfare group Protect the Wild organised the demonstration outside the Biodiversity + Business Live conference at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in Queen Street, to challenge NatureScot over its role in licensing the hunt, which takes place on a remote island off the north of Scotland.
From 8am, protesters stood with placards and megaphones outside the conference, co-hosted by NatureScot, accusing Scotland's nature agency of undermining its own biodiversity commitments by licensing the killing of gannet chicks.
Delegates arriving for the conference, including Scottish Government ministers and UK business leaders, were met by protesters chanting, "NatureScot, shame, shame! Gannets killed in your name!" as they entered the building.
The Guga hunt involves hunters travelling to the remote island of Sula Sgeir, around 40 miles north of the Isle of Lewis, where young gannets are taken from their nests and killed for a traditional delicacy.
At the Holyrood elections in May, wildlife campaigner Robert Pownall dressed as a giant gannet and stood as an independent in Edinburgh Central, attracting widespread coverage.
NatureScot's board will decide on August 3 whether to grant the licence for the 2026 hunt – the first time the decision has been escalated to NatureScot’s senior leadership.
Speaking at the protest, Devon Docherty, Scottish campaigns manager at Protect the Wild, said: "It's hard to imagine a more striking contradiction than a nature agency co-hosting a biodiversity conference while facilitating the mass-slaughter of protected native seabirds.
“NatureScot’s job is to protect nature and wildlife, not outdated cultural traditions that harm them. It’s baffling that we’re even having to be here reminding them of that.
“On August 3, NatureScot has a choice: keep defending a cruel hunt that robs gannets of their only chick, or show that their commitment to biodiversity is more than just words on paper.”
Protect the Wild said the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission - the Scottish Government’s official advisors on animal welfare - recently concluded there is no feasible way to carry out the Guga hunt humanely.
“Their report found that the hunt risks causing unnecessary suffering to gannet chicks, which are taken from their nests using noose-ended poles before being killed by repeated blows to the head with a wooden club.”
Protect the Wild claim the commission’s findings should be “the nail in the coffin” for the Guga hunt.
NatureScot has previously said it will consider the 2026 guga hunt licence “as required by the relevant legal frameworks and using the most recent scientific evidence”.