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Todays post is not a happy story. Even more so if you are a gannet chick (Guga). For hundreds of years an Island near the Isle of Lewis sees men arrive and club to death gannet chicks. this happens in August every year. The SSPCA are trying to have this source of food, yes the Guga are eaten, stopped saying it is barbaric. I’m not sure if its double standards as they have no campaign to stop the glorious 12th and the shooting that continues until December. I shall give you some information I have found and you can make your own mind up.

PICTURE BY COLINBRYDON.NET

FROM THE BBC

An animal welfare charity has called the traditional harvesting of young seabirds on the Western Isles as “barbaric”.

The Scottish SPCA has written to the Scottish government asking for a ban on the annual guga hunt be put in place.

Thousands of gannet chicks are taken from the island of Sula Sgeir, north of Lewis, to be eaten as a delicacy.

The government said it was satisfied the methods used to kill the birds were not inhumane if done competently.

The Scottish SPCA said the birds were caught using a noose on the end of a pole and then beaten to death.

Other animal welfare groups have made previous calls for a ban.

GugaHuntersMacGeoch

Guga hunting is centuries old and takes place in late August.

Scottish SPCA chief superintendent Mike Flynn said the tradition caused suffering.

He said: “A competent person may kill one or two birds outright with a single blow, but in our opinion most will take more than one blow to be killed.

“This has to be considered in the context of this particular species of bird as gannets have exceptionally strong necks and heavy skulls, which enable them to dive into the water for prey from very high heights and at great speeds.”

The Scottish government said there would not be any move to ban the hunt.

A spokesman said: “We are satisfied that there is no conservation risk to the local gannet population posed by this traditional hunt.

“We are also satisfied that, provided it is done effectively and competently, the method used to dispatch the birds is not inhumane.”
Strong smelling

In Scotland, colonies of the large seabird are found at Troup Head, near Fraserburgh, on St Kilda, the Northern Isles and Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth.

Two years ago, author Donald S Murray’s The Guga Hunters was published.

The former English teacher gathered tales from hunts and similar harvests on the Faroes, Iceland and Orkney.

Mr Murray also wrote a pamphlet of poems, called Praising the Guga.

About 2,000 birds are harvested a year. The meat is described as grey, strong smelling and salty.

GUGA by Scott Hatton – Guga le Scott Hatton

Some 40 miles north of Lewis lie two remote islands, North Rona and Sulasgeir. Rona is the larger of the two islands and boasts a green salt-seasoned sward. It was once populated mainly by residents who looked after sheep placed on the island for fattening. Sir James Matheson, who bought Lewis in 1844, once offered the island to the Government for use as a penal settlement, a kind of British Devil’s Island. The offer was refused. But it is Sulasgeir, which has a special place in the seafaring history of the men of Ness on the Isle of Lewis. Though often called an island it is, in fact, little more than a large sea rock. There is scarcely any soil on Sulasgeir. That lack is made up by the rock’s role as one of the most important breeding grounds for gannets, with some 9000 breeding pairs on Sulasgeir, which they share with other bird species such as kittiwakes, guillemots, puffins, Leach’s petrel and fulmars. The rock’s name sula (solan goose) and sgeir (rock) gives the clue for the importance for Ness.

GugaHuntRockClimbingMacG

One of the earliest accounts written about the Western Isles was by Dean Munro, who visited the islands in 1549. His description of Sulasgeir mentions that the men of Ness sailed in their small craft to “fetche hame thair boatful of dry wild fowls with wild fowl fedderis”. How long before 1549 the Nessmen sailed to Sulasgeir each year to collect the young gannets for food and feathers is not known, but it may be assumed that it was a tradition for centuries. That tradition is still carried on today. A report written in 1797 says: ‘There is in Ness a most venturous set of people who for a few years back, at the hazard of their lives, went there in an open six-oared boat without even the aid of a compass’. Excellent seamanship was certainly essential for the success of these expeditions – rowing across miles of turbulent Atlantic was no pleasure cruise.

The flesh of the young gannet or ‘guga’ is regarded as a delicacy in Ness today though, for others, it is an acquired taste. Even so, it was a popular meat in earlier times in Scotland. In the sixteenth century it was served at the tables of Scots kings and was a favourite with the wealthy as a ‘whet’ or appetizer before main meals. In the autumn of each year, a hardy team of Nessmen set sail for Sulasgeir to kill around 2000 young birds and bring home their catch about two weeks later, to meet an eager crowd of customers, who snap up as many of the birds as they can. The demand is often so great that the birds have to be rationed out to ensure that each person does not go without a taste of guga.

The annual cull of birds has been the focus of attention of bird protectionists, who recently have tried to ban the cull completely. But tradition dies hard and the Sulasgeir trip still goes on, with a special dispensation written into the 1954 Wild Birds Protection Act by a Statutory Order, which allows the Nessmen to continue their taste both for adventure and for the guga.

Nestcap for 18^th August 2011

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The Dyfi Osprey Project and the Scottish wildlife Trust  have kindly given their permission for us to post still and video images from their webcams. To visit their sites please click on the relevant link.    Loch of the Lowes.  Dyfi Osprey Project.