from Sunday Herald, 18 November 2007
Scotland's most famous school of dolphins is under threat because the UK government is failing to block oil and gas developments in the Moray Firth.
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) in London - formerly the Department of Trade and Industry - has rejected calls from environmental organisations to exclude the Firth from the current round of oil and gas licensing.
If the area is developed by oil companies, its precarious population of bottlenose dolphins could be hit by "potentially lethal impacts", the groups warn. Other cetaceans, including whales and porpoises, could also suffer.
Green campaigners are now calling on Scottish ministers to be ready to use new powers enabling them to protect the marine environment from damaging development. The powers were introduced in the wake of the arguments over plans to pump millions of tonnes of oil between tankers in the Firth of Forth.
BERR is currently conducting the 24th round of oil and gas licensing around Britain, and two of the blocks it is proposing to license are within the Moray Firth. This is despite the area's designation as a Special Area of Conservation, meant to provide legal protection for the dolphins.
A powerful coalition of six conservation groups, including WWF, The Wildlife Trusts, the Marine Conservation Society and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), has written to the BERR minister, Malcolm Wicks, urging him to abandon the plans.
"The scientific evidence," they said, "clearly demonstrates that some oil and gas activities are likely to at least disturb marine mammals and that the decommissioning phase has potentially lethal impacts on marine mammals which cannot be mitigated."
They argued that it was impossible to demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that there will be no adverse effects on marine wildlife - the legal test that has to be applied. "The impacts of major developments such as these clearly threaten the favourable conservation status of a number of UK marine mammal species, including the bottlenose dolphin," they wrote.
The wildlife groups pointed out that there was "considerable concern" over the dolphins in the Moray Firth. "The population is very small, very vulnerable and isolated," said Sarah Dolman, from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.
The groups also complained that they were being sidelined in the discussions on BERR's environmental assessment of the oil and gas licensing plans. This "acts to devalue and undermine" the whole process, they alleged.
But Wicks has rejected their arguments, and refused to rule out oil and gas development in the Moray Firth. Instead he said he would wait for the results of an "appropriate assessment" of the environmental impacts of development.
"I do not propose to take any decision over the licensing of the areas you mention until I have received comments," he said. He dismissed the suggestion that environmental views had been sidelined, and encouraged wildlife groups to get involved in future consultations.
The response has angered environmentalists in Scotland, who fear for the future of the dolphins. The Green MSP, Robin Harper, has met with the Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Richard Lochhead, to raise his concerns.
"It would be a environmental travesty for any oil and gas exploration to be given the go-ahead for the Moray Firth, a beautiful area with an ecological richness that is unique to Scotland," Harper told the Sunday Herald.
"The Greens were successful in getting the Scottish Government to change regulations under the European Habitats Directive which gave ministers more powers to stop oil transfers in the Firth of Forth. We believe this legislation could be used to protect the environment in the Moray Firth."
RSPB Scotland's marine policy officer, Mark Ruskell, reinforced the point. "The new law can and must be used to challenge the potentially devastating impact of oil and gas exploration on some of Scotland's most iconic wildlife," he said.
The Scottish Government said it was aware of the licensing round. "We understand that BERR is considering the potential impact upon the Moray Firth special area of conservation for dolphins," added a government spokesman.
"We are also aware that Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee are advising BERR on the implications. We will continue to closely monitor the situation."
SNH, the government's main conservation agency, pointed out that there are as many as 20 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises in UK waters. "We have highlighted the need for a proper assessment of the impact of developments on cetaceans," said an SNH spokesman.
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