The Seal Protection Action Group (SPAG) has been working tirelessly to end the mass shooting of seals by the Scottish Salmon industry over the past ten years. Thanks to our campaign the number of seals shot each year has fallen to a record new low.

The campaign led to the Scottish Government introducing the Seal Licence scheme in 2011. Before then, seal killings by fish-farmers, wild salmon net fisheries and angling interests went unrecorded, and but were estimated to be in the thousands each year. 

The evidence for the dramatic fall in shooting can be found in Scottish Government statistics here. The figures reveal that 53 grey and 19 common seals were reported shot in 2017, compared to the 97 shot the previous year, and 160 in 2015. This figure, represents a drop of some 84% compared to the 459 seals shot in 2011, when the Seal Licence was first introduced, and with a three-year coastal netting ban still in place to protect wild stocks, introduced in April 2016, this number is set to remain at this lower level in 2018.

However, while thousands of seals have undoubtedly been saved by the campaign, some 1,700 seals have been reported shot since 2011, and SPAG will not rest until the killing is stopped completely. The chances of this are growing stronger, thanks to new legislation introduced in the United States, which could see Scottish salmon imports banned within the next two years unless seal killings are stopped completely. The new laws require all US trading partners to prohibit the deliberate killing or serious injury of marine mammals in all fisheries, including aquaculture, or face a complete ban on access to US markets. With Scottish exports of salmon worth £600 million in 2017, the US represents the single biggest export market for the sector at almost £200 million in 2017.

The Seal Protection Action Group is working to ensure that the new US laws are not weakened or scrapped in the face of pressure from the Scottish Government and Scottish Salmon industry.

SPAG founded the Salmon Aquaculture and Seals Working Group (SASWG) in 2010 to work with government and salmon companies, along with retailers and scientists, to reduce seal shooting by finding and implementing exclusively non-lethal solutions to conflicts with seals.  SPAG is calling on the Scottish Government and Scottish salmon industry to work with us to end all seal shooting by 2020.

The Seal Protection Action Group (SPAG) has been working to end the shooting of seals by the Scottish Salmon Industry for almost ten years. Now, thanks to our campaign the number of seals shot has fallen to the lowest level since the Scottish Government introduced the Seal Licence scheme in 2011. Before this scheme was introduced there was no monitoring of seal killings by fish-farmers, wild salmon net fisheries and sports–angling interests, which were estimated to be in the thousands each year.

The evidence for the dramatic fall in shooting can be found in Scottish Government statistics here. The figures reveal that in 2016, 99 seals were reported shot compared to 160 shot the previous year. This figure, represents a drop of some 80% compared to the 459 seals shot in 2011 and with a three year coastal netting ban in place, introduced in April last year, this number is set to fall still further in 2017. While thousands of seals have been saved by the campaign, SPAG will not rest until the killing is stopped completely.

While SPAG continues to work to end seal killings, new legislation introduced in the United States could see Scottish salmon imports banned unless seal killings are stopped. The new laws require all US trading partners to prohibit the deliberate killing or serious injury of marine mammals in all fisheries, including aquaculture, or face a complete ban on access to US markets.  SPAG is monitoring the situation and will do everything we can to ensure that these new laws are not
weakened or scrapped in the face of protests from the Scottish Government and Scottish Salmon industry.

SPAG founded the Salmon Aquaculture and Seals Working Group (SASWG) in 2010  in order to work with government, salmon companies, retailers and scientists to reduce seal shooting and find non-lethal solutions to conflict with seals.

SPAG is calling on the Scottish Government and salmon industry to work with us to end all seal shooting by 2020.

Please support our vital work to end seal shooting in Scotland. Further information about our campaign can be found on this website.

The Seal Protection Action Group (SPAG) is campaigning to end seal shooting in Scotland. Now, new legislation could see Scottish salmon exports to the United States banned over the killing of seals.

The US Government has introduced new measures to ban fisheries imports from countries that do not adequately protect marine mammals. While these rules are primarily aimed at reducing the horrific number of marine mammals killed as by-catch in commercial fisheries, they have now been extended to include aquaculture operations, and that will include Scottish farmed salmon.

The Scottish Government introduced a licence scheme for killing seals in 2011. The Seal Licence has permitted over 1,500 seals to be shot over the past five years. Seals can be shot all year round, including during the breeding seasons of our globally important populations of grey and common seals, leaving dependent pups to starve.

The new US legislation requires trading partners to prohibit the deliberate killing or serious injury of marine mammals in all fisheries, including aquaculture, or face a complete ban on imports from these fisheries into the US market.

The number of seals killed in Scottish waters has fallen hugely thanks to our campaign. Before the
Scottish Government introduced the licensing scheme it was estimated that thousands of seals were shot every year by fish-farmers, wild salmon netsmen and sports–angling interests.  Evidence of the continuing fall in shooting can be found in the government statistics. In 2015, 160 seals were shot, according to Scottish government figures, compared to almost 500 in 2011, and with a three-year coastal netting ban, introduced in April this year, that number is set to fall even further. While thousands of seals have already been saved by the campaign, SPAG will not rest until the killing is stopped completely.

Cruelty

The salmon industry claims that seal attacks cause serious losses and that seals are only shot by skilled marksmen as a ‘last resort’. While this is often disputed, what is clear is that the industry is shooting far fewer seals these days and that is a welcome development.

Yet while fewer seals are being shot, this does not mean that seals are not suffering. A new analysis of the Seal Licence scheme has provided further evidence of the cruelty behind the statistics. It can be read here.

The study reveals that of the 1,531 seals shot between 2011-2015, only 91 (6%) of the carcasses were recovered and just 40 (2.6%) of these were subject to a post-mortem. Nonetheless, even this small number of examinations has vindicated SPAG concerns that shooting is inherently cruel, revealing that:

• most seals are shot in the water increasing the risk of a poor shot, injury and a prolonged death
• a third of the shot seals examined were pregnant, suggesting as many as 500 pregnant seals
have been shot in the past five years
• nursing seals are shot leaving dependant pups to starve
• some animals are not killed by the first shot.

SPAG demands

In light of the new report SPAG has joined a coalition of animal welfare groups that have written to the Scottish Government calling for an immediate ban on shooting seals during the breeding season in order to protect unborn and dependent pups.

SPAG founded the Salmon Aquaculture and Seals Working Group (SASWG) in 2008 to find non-lethal solutions to conflict with seals. In our joint letter we are also calling for the government and salmon industry to work with us to end all  seal shooting by 2020.

Please support our work. Further information about our campaign can be found on this website.

1st October 2015

The Scottish Government has just published the latest seal shooting figures on their website at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Licensing/SealLicensing

They reveal that 86 grey and 24 common seals (110 animals) were reported shot between January and June this year. By comparison, 97 grey and 19 commons (116) were reported shot
during the same period last year. It suggests that seal shooting may be levelling off with the projected total for the year of around 200 seals shot in Scottish waters by fish-farmers, salmon nets-men and angling interests.

Because shooting is permitted all year round, the latter six months of shooting falls within the breeding seasons of our globally important populations of grey and common seals. This means dependent pups are left to starve if their mothers are shot. Because the carcass is seldom recovered, although this is required under the licence, it is not possible to establish if shot seals are nursing and so calculate the number of seal pups that may suffer as a consequence –  a cruel and unnecessary tragedy that goes unreported in the statistics.

Since 2011, when the seal Licence was introduced, we have seen reported numbers of seals shot fall by around 50%, from 461 in 2011 to 205 in 2014. However, the accuracy of these figures is open to question given the scheme is based entirely upon self-reporting.

What the reported figures reveal is that 1,500 seals have been shot in 4.5 years under the scheme, an average of 333 seals each year.

In 2014, salmon farmers shot 80 seals with a further 125 shot by salmon netters and sports angling river authorities. Usan Salmon Fisheries of Montrose, a company that sets net for wild salmon, have already been named as the single biggest seal killing company in Scotland having shot over 100 seals in 2013 alone.

RSPCA accredited ‘Freedom Food’ fish-farms shot almost 70% of the 80 seals reported shot by fish-farmers last year.  Unfortunately,  there is no way for shoppers to know if any salmon product they buy has not been produced by companies that shoot seals.

While the Scottish Government repeatedly claims the Seal Licence scheme is ‘working well’ the delays in posting the quarterly shooting statistics and the deliberate withholding of individual company shooting information, has made any independent monitoring of the the scheme very difficult. There is no way to verify the shooting figures being reported either.

The Seal Protection Action Group recognises that seal shooting has shown a huge decrease based on historical estimates and that some salmon farmers have played their part. However, the number of seals shot in Scottish waters each year remains unacceptable, especially as we believe it is perfectly possible to deter seals and other wild predators without harming them.

The Seal Protection Action Group is committed to end all seal shooting and for the Scottish Salmon Industry to adopt strictly non-lethal solutions to interactions with seals and other wildlife.

8th July 2015

The Seal Protection Action Group has today named Usan Salmon Fisheries of Montrose, who trade as the Scottish Wild Salmon Company, as the number one seal killer in Scotland. The news comes after recent video footage was released of Usan personnel shooting three seals at two locations last month and reports that police are taking no action over a shot seal washing up on tourist beach at Crovie, Aberdeenshire.

According to government figures for 2013, Usan Salmon Fisheries Ltd are responsible for shooting up to 40% of the total number of seals shot in Scotland under licence. Usan sells their salmon and trout catches to exclusive restaurants and hotels in Scotland and throughout Europe, as well as to supermarkets and other outlets in the UK.  The Scottish Government publishes quarterly seal shooting figures online under the Seal Licence scheme which was introduced in 2011. However, the individual company shooting details have been withheld for 2014 onwards out of concern that companies may be targeted by activists. However, this week the Scottish Information Commissioner ruled that this information must be made public again.

Usan, who catch wild salmon and trout with nets, first came to notoriety in 2012 when the picturesque holiday village of Crovie in Aberdeenshire came ‘under siege’ from Usan fishermen shooting seals in open public view. An English couple cut short their holiday in Crovie, after witnessing seals being shot in the bay beneath their cottage. They claimed some 20 seals were shot in just two weeks by the company’s gunmen.

SPAG raised its concerns with Marine Scotland and were shocked to be told Usan ‘had not exceeded the terms of their licence’. However, the company reluctantly agreed to trial an acoustic seal-scaring device, but only on one net at Crovie, which was shown to deter seals without harm. However, Usan’s seal shooting has continued and is escalating at other netting stations in the Crovie area and elsewhere. The company has also been granted further licences to shoot even more seals for a fly-fishing business and salmon netting station in the Ythan estuary, Aberdeenshire. 

The Scottish Government shooting figures reveal a massive increase in the seals shot by Usan while all other companies appear to be shooting fewer seals. In 2011, Usan shot 9 seals out of total 461 or 2% of the total. In 2012, they shot 96 out of 433 seals, or 22% of the total; and in 2013, 103 seals out of 274, or 38% of the total number of seals killed.

Andy Ottaway of the Seal Protection Action Group said ‘Usan Salmon are public enemy number one for everyone that cares about seals. The public do not want any seals killed for Scottish salmon. Usan salmon must stop this cruel slaughter or face a public boycott of their salmon products’.

Seal shooting has shown an average overall decline of 50% since 2011, with most of these reductions made by salmon farmers. However, shooting by Usan Salmon has increased over tenfold to almost 40% of the seals killed in that time, based on information now publicly withheld by Marine Scotland.

SPAG today has written to the government to express its extreme concern at Usan’s escalation of shooting and to demand the strongest action is taken to end Usan’s ‘flagrant abuse’ of the Seal Licence system.

‘The mass shooting of seals is a bloody stain on Scotland’s image and all Scottish salmon products’ said Ottaway, ‘The Scottish Government must now make public those companies like Usan that are shooting seals and these companies will face a consumer backlash as a consequence. It is time to mandate the use of effective non-lethal seal deterrents for all salmon farmers; netsmen and sports-angling interests and end the mass killing of these beautiful, intelligent creatures.’

The Seal Protection Action Group’s (SPAG) campaign to end seal shooting in Scotland and the rest of the UK has hit the headlines this week. The campaign made front page news in the Daily Mirror on Tuesday 7th April and the issue was also covered extensively in the Daily Mail online and Daily Express online, and The Times. There was also coverage in the fish trade media and Scottish newspapers. Campaigns Director Andy Ottaway was also interviewed on the Jeremy Vine show on BBC Radio Two on Thursday 9th April.

Our seals are under fire and need your help. We believe dead seals and starving pups are too high a price to pay for a salmon steak or sandwich, or a fly-fishing holiday. We know seals can be deterred from fish cages, nets and salmon rivers without harming them, but the industry will not stop shooting without concerted public pressure placed on them to do so.

If you would like to support our campaign there are four simple things you can do to help:

1. Please write to High Street retailers and ask them whether their salmon suppliers shoot seals. Please tell them you do not want to buy salmon products (including RSPCA Freedom Food salmon) from producers that shoot seals. You can email the retailers: here

2. Please also sign the petition to retailers at: www.change.org

3. Support our campaign, write to your MP and demand that our seals are fully protected under law from all deliberate killing

4. Please support our work with a donation, or by joining the Seal Protection Action Group. Just click the ‘Donate’ button for a list of ways you can help.

Thank you very much on behalf of the seals.

The Seal Protection Action Group has welcomed a continuing downward trend in seal shooting under government licence in Scottish waters, but warned that the mass seal killings continue to damage Scotland’s reputation and much more must be done to end the practice.

The latest figures, just posted on a Scottish Government website www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Licensing/SealLicensing, reveal that a total of 161 grey and 41 common seals were reported shot in 2014, or 205 animals in total.

With 238 grey and 36 common seals, 274 in total, shot in 2013, this represents 69 fewer seals than were reported shot in 2013 (274) and 254 fewer than in 2011 (459).

This means the number of seals reported shot has fallen by 55% in the four years since the Seal Licence scheme was introduced in 2011. 

The Seal Licence was introduced in January 2011 to regulate seal killings. It is now illegal to kill a seal without one. Even so, a staggering 1,1373 seals have been reported  shot in four years under the seal licence scheme, an average of 343 seals each year, or one seal shot nearly every single day.

The Scottish Government website also reveals that 51 licences have been issued to shoot a maximum of 662 grey and 197 common seals, or 859 seals in total, during 2015. The seals will be shot at fish-farms, allegedly to protect salmon stock and equipment, and in rivers by salmon netting companies and the sports angling industry.

In 2013, 105 seals were shot by fish-farmers and 169 were shot by wild salmon netting companies and sports-angling interests.

Of the 205 seals shot in 2014, 80 seals or 39% were shot by fish-farmers and 125 seals or 61% by wild salmon netting companies and sports-angling interests.

According to these figures around 75% of seals shot by aquaculture are shot at RSPCA-accredited Freedom Food Farms.

The Seal Protection Action Group is working to end all seal shooting. In 2010, we founded the www.saswg.org.uk to investigate and promote benign alternatives such as better practice, properly tensioned nets and new acoustic scaring devices that do not harm seals or other marine life such as porpoises.

However, while some aquaculture companies, such as Marine Harvest, have all but eliminated seal shooting others have not, and wild salmon netting companies and river fisheries are  now shooting most seals.

Seals are still being shot even though trials of a new acoustic seal deterrent device, developed by the Seal Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) at St Andrews University with a grant from the Scottish government, have suggested it could be very effective at deterring seals from fish-farms, salmon nets and sports-angling rivers without harming them or other wildlife.  SPAG has condemned as ‘scandalous’ the fact that a device developed with public funds has been ‘sold’ to a private finance company in America and is yet to be made widely available to the industry.

“I don’t think that people buying Scottish salmon or visiting Scotland for a fly-fishing holiday realize the terrible price that our seals are paying for their pleasure” said Andy Ottaway of the SPAG, “SPAG is calling on the Scottish government and salmon industry to pull together and end seal shooting which leaves a bloody stain on the image of Scotland and Scottish salmon products.
Notes:

•The expansion of salmon production may have serious consequences for wildlife and tourism says SPAG. In 2012, an English couple cut short a holiday in Aberdeenshire after witnessing seals being shot in a bay at Crovie, Aberdeenshire. Around 30 seals were shot by the Usan Salmon Fisheries Company. Marine Scotland said the company ‘had not exceeded the terms of their licence’.

•A new Acoustic Deterrent Device, developed by SMRU scientists at St Andrew’s University with government funding is now owned by Bankers Capital of New York

•A forum, the Salmon Aquaculture and Seals Working Group, was established in 2010 to explore non-lethal solutions to deter seals. Members are the Seal Protection Action Group; Marine Harvest; Scottish Salmon Company, Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation, Sainsbury’s; International Animal Rescue; the RSPCA, Freedom Foods, Humane Society International, Marine Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU)

•Scientists report a ‘frightening’ decline in common seals www.smru.st-andrews.ac.uk/documents/scos_2008_v1.pdf

•The UK’s globally important populations of grey and common seals are threatened by climate change, toxic pollution, over-fishing, entanglement in fishing gear,disturbance, habitat degradation and deliberate killing.

•SPAG is calling on UK retailers to insist Scottish salmon suppliers stop killing seals.

•SPAG opposes the Seal Licence because it permits shooting of seals in the breeding seasons leaving abandoned pups to starve; lacks a credible inspection and monitoring scheme, sets quotas for common seals that are in serious decline and grey seals, that number fewer than African elephants, and fails to impose mandatory non-lethal deterrents to reduce and ultimately end all seal killings.

The massive decline in seals killed in commercial hunts continues,  thanks to international trade bans on the import of seal products from these hunts. The Canadian Sealers Association says that fewer than 55,000 harp seals were landed this year compared to 91,000 in 2013 and 69,000 in 2012. 

This number, while huge, is still far below the government’s massive quota of nearly 470,000 seals, even though reports suggest prices of $35 for the highest quality pelts. The Sealer’s Association is calling on the Canadian Government to do more to fight bans on the import of seal products in the U.S., Mexico, European Union, Russia and Taiwan. It has received  $292,000 in government support to help create and sell new seal meat products.

In May 2014, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rejected a further appeal by Canada and Norway and upheld the European Union ‘s ban on imports of seal products from commercial hunts. This landmark ruling is final and means that the EU ban,  introduced in 2010, does not breach rules on free trade.

However, this ban does contain exemptions for indigenous people in Canada, Greenland, Alaska and Russia that are allowed to trade seal products with the EU. Canada and Norway argued these exemptions were unfair to non-indigenous hunting communities and that the scale of the Greenland hunt was tantamount to commercial sealing. In response, the WTO panel did comment that if the EU felt animal welfare was so important, it should also strengthen regulations governing indigenous hunting. The Seal Protection Action Group could not agree more given the obvious cruelty involved in these hunts.

The Seal protection Action Group  has cautiously welcomed an ongoing downward trend in seal shooting under government licence in Scottish waters, but warned that mass seal killing continues to damage Scotland’s reputation.

The latest figures, recently posted on a Scottish Government website, reveal that a total of 238 grey and 36 common seals, 274 in total, were shot in 2013. This total represents 159 seals fewer than were reported shot in 2012 (433) and 185 fewer than in 2011 (459).

The Seal Licence was introduced in January 2011 to regulate seal killings. It is now illegal to kill a seal without one. Even so, a staggering 1,166 seals have been reported shot in just three years under the seal licence scheme, an average of 389 seals each year, or over one seal every single day.

The Scottish Government website also reveals that 53 licences have been issued, with a further 3 awaiting approval, to shoot a maximum of 765 grey and 240 common seals, or 1,005 seals in total, during 2014. The seals will be shot at fish-farms, allegedly to protect salmon stock and equipment, and in rivers by salmon netting companies and the sports angling industry. Of the 274 seals shot in 2013, 105 or 38% were shot by fish-farmers and 169 (62%) by wild salmon netting companies and sports-angling interests.

The Seal Protection Action Group is working to end all seal shooting. However, while some aquaculture companies, such as Marine Harvest, have all but eliminated seal shooting other aquaculture companies have not, and wild salmon netting companies and river fisheries are simply shooting even more seals.

“People buying Scottish salmon, including RSPCA ‘Freedom Food’ salmon products, or visiting Scotland for a fly-fishing holiday need to realise the appalling suffering inflicted upon these beautiful and intelligent animals by the Scottish salmon industry” said Andy Ottaway of the SPAG, “Dead or badly maimed seals, orphaned and starving pups, that is the real price of Scottish salmon”

Seals are still being shot even though trials of a new accoustic seal deterrent device, developed by the Seal Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) at St Andrews University with a grant from the Scottish government, have suggested it could be very effective at deterring seals from fish-farms, salmon nets and sports-angling rivers without harming them or other wildlife. SPAG has condemned as ‘scandalous’ the fact that a device developed with public funds has been ‘sold’ to a private finance company in America and is yet to be made widely available to the industry.

‘SPAG is calling on the Scottish government and salmon industry to pull together and resolve an issue that leaves a bloody stain on the image of Scotland and Scottish salmon products’ said Ottaway

PRESS STATEMENT: 5TH SEPTEMBER 2013

The Seal Protection Group (SPAG) has condemned today the shooting of over 1,000 seals in Scottish waters in little over two years.

Director Andy Ottaway said today: ‘The Scottish Government claims that seals are only shot as a last resort measure to protect fish stock, sports angling rivers and fishing equipment, but it’s hard to see any need to kill over 1,000 seals in just over two years. We believe it is perfectly possible to deter seals without shooting them, which often leaves orphaned pups to slowly starve’.

SPAG is working with the leading producers and retailers of Scottish salmon to end the killings. ‘The largest producer of Scottish Salmon has shot just one seal this year’ said Ottaway ‘So why are so many more still being shot?’ 

He added: ‘Is this the image of Scotland the Government wants to present to tourists and to visitors it wants to attract to the Commonwealth Games next year?’ 

According to Scottish Government statistics, 1,064 seals have been reported shot under it’s Seal Licence Scheme since it was introduced in 2011. This number breaks down as 461 seal shot in 2011, a further 423 in 2012 and 180 seals in the first six months of 2013.