Rob Edwards

Simon Pepper 1947-2018

Simon Pepper, who has died aged 70, played a major role in shaping environmental campaigning and policy in Scotland. He made WWF Scotland into one of the country’s most influential pressure groups, forged dozens of different organisations into a powerful alliance and was a key advisor to successive governments.

In 1985 Simon was WWF Scotland’s only employee, working from his study under the stairs at home near Aberfeldy. Over the course of the next 20 years under his leadership it grew to be an effective force for environmental good, with up to 20 staff.

With skilled behind-the-scenes negotiating, he helped stop a destructive plan to gouge a superquarry into a mountain on the isle of Harris. The French multinational behind the plan, Lafarge, sponsored WWF International to the tune of £3.5 million and admitted that internal pressure from WWF Scotland helped persuade it to abandon the superquarry in 2004.

Simon also was key in getting Scottish ministers to establish two national parks at Loch Lomond and the Cairngorms in 2002 and 2003. He fought plans for a funicular railway up Cairngorm, which turned out to be a financial and environmental disaster, and campaigned against fish farms and tax breaks for commercial forestry.

Simon knew that more progress could be achieved if Scotland’s disparate conservation groups learnt to work better together. That’s why he devoted much energy to founding Scottish Environment Link in 1987, which now includes more than 35 organisations representing half a million people.

The Millennium Forest for Scotland was Simon’s brainchild, and he helped run it from 1995 to 2001. That resulted in £27 million being spent restoring 22,000 hectares of woodland.

He served on the boards of eight government agencies, offering ministers advice on forestry, deer, wildlife conservation, sustainable development, climate change and lottery funding. He was elected rector of St Andrews University from 2005 to 2008 and - to his embarrassment - was awarded an OBE.

The laird, his salmon and an erring TV programme

from Sunday Herald, 17 April 2016

It’s a fishy tale involving a Highland laird who boasts connections to Jane Austen and the Queen, his palatial pile on the River Dee and a syrupy TV documentary that goofed.

Andrew and Nicola Bradford were lauded as an “extraordinary couple” in a programme broadcast on ITV3 last Sunday because of the way they manage Kincardine Castle and their 3,000-acre estate in Aberdeenshire.

But the programme went too far when it wrongly suggested that Andrew caught the salmon eaten by paying guests. If he had, it would have breached the River Dee’s conservation code, and could have been illegal.

Along with shooting, fishing and farming, the one-hour ‘Great Estates’ documentary described how the Bradfords entertained corporate guests to fine wine and food. According to their website, a banquet for 80 costs over £12,000.

On the broadcast Andrew Bradford told guests that his great-great-great-grand-aunt was the author of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen. He said that the Queen used to regularly visit when she was young, and staying at the royal Balmoral estate a short distance away.

But the programme commentary also said that the salmon on the menu was from the river. “In generations gone by, the task of catching the salmon would have fallen to the salaried gamekeepers,” viewers were told.

“But tonight, and on every night when such dinners are hosted, the fish is caught by Andrew himself.”

Complaint over dead fish dumping forces rule change

from Sunday Herald, 10 April 2016

A local complaint to the European Commission over the poor regulation of the disposal of dead fish from salmon farms has forced the Scottish Government to rewrite the rules.

For years the caged salmon industry has been allowed to dump diseased fish in landfill sites because of a loophole in public health law. But ministers have now had to close the loophole and oblige fish farm companies to dispose of dead fish in safer ways.

From the start of 2016 salmon farms must abide by the rules introduced in the wake of the outbreak of mad cow disease (BSE) in the 1980s. The farms have to incinerate, sterilise or compost their wastes, and not just tip them into landfill sites.

The £700 million fish farming industry has long had major problems with many millions of salmon mortalities annually, either caused by disease, excess medication or other causes. According to figures from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), over the last three years some 38,800 tonnes of dead fish have been recorded at fish farms across Scotland.

Between August 2011 and June 2012 82,663 salmon deaths from disease were recorded at Ardmaddy fish farm in Seil Sound, Argyll. When the local environmental group, Save Seil Sound, asked what had happened to the resulting 257 tonnes of dead fish, no-one seemed to know.

Supermarket under fire over farmed salmon

from Sunday Herald, 27 March 2016

Sainsbury’s has been accused of breaking a promise not to sell salmon from farms infested with lice in breach of guideline limits.

The angling group, Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland (S&TCS), has attacked the supermarket chain for continuing to market caged salmon from the north west coast of Scotland that could harm wild fish.

Salmon farms have long had a problem with sea lice, tiny natural parasites that eat fish alive. Lice can multiply in cages holding many thousands of salmon, and then spread to passing wild young salmon and sea trout and kill them.

S&TCS complained a year ago that Sainsbury’s salmon came from fish farms that failed to meet industry guidelines on lice infestation. The group was then assured by company managers that the problem was being dealt with, and lice infestations would end.

But S&TCS says that lice levels on salmon farms at Loch Duich, Loch Alsh and Ardintoul near the Isle of Skye breached the industry’s good practice code in the last three months of 2015. In December average levels reached nearly seven adult female lice per fish, compared to a recommended threshold of one.

Precious bay will be damaged by dredging, warn wildlife groups

from Sunday Herald, 13 March 2016

A government move to allow scallop dredging in one of Scotland’s most precious bays will wreck the seabed, damage wildlife and could be illegal, environmental groups have warned.

Scottish ministers have agreed to allow fishing boats to dredge almost a third of Luce Bay on the far southwestern tip of Galloway for four months every year. The bay is legally protected as a conservation area because of its endangered purple-pink maerl beds, brittlestars and hundreds of other marine species.

A coalition of seven major conservation groups have joined with an angling network to protest to the government’s Marine Scotland directorate over a decision to permit scallop dredging in the Luce Bay and Sands Special Area of Conservation (SAC) on the edge of the Solway Firth.

In a joint letter, they expressed concern that the government’s approach will result in the natural features special to the bay being harmed. “Fisheries management measures for Luce Bay will expose areas of seabed to potential damage by scallop dredging at certain times of year,” they wrote.

They questioned whether the government’s scientific evidence was sufficient to ensure that no damage would occur. There was evidence of an underwater reef – a potentially rich habitat for marine wildlife - to the west of the bay that could be at risk, they said.

Fishing boat raided for electrocuting clams in government crackdown

from Sunday Herald, 20 September 2015

Fishermen are facing fines of up to £10,000 or prosecution for illegally electrocuting a large number of razor clams after a night-time raid by Scottish Government inspectors.

As enforcement officers from Marine Scotland approached a boat in the Sound of Jura in the early hours of 10 September, fishing gear was unceremoniously dumped overboard. It has since been recovered by divers and confiscated.

According to the government, the razor clams were being harvested in an area that hadn’t been licenced for shell fishing. This meant that they could be poisoned by algal toxins and hence be “unfit for human consumption”.

The raid is the latest in a concerted crackdown on the illegal multi-million pound electro-fishing business. Boats drag arrays of electrodes powered by an on-board generator across the seabed to deliver a shock that forces clams out of their burrows.

The clams then have to be collected from the seabed by divers. In recent years three divers have been killed during electro-fishing operations, with one skipper jailed in March this year for failing to properly protect a diver.

Razor clams, also known as spoots, are regarded as a gourmet delicacy, and have a soft, sweet flesh much favoured by chefs. There is a lucrative market for them across Europe and in the Far East.

Fishermen accused of ignoring ban on scallop dredging

from Sunday Herald, 06 September 2015

A fishing business is facing prosecution for allegedly breaching a ban on scallop dredging designed to protect a wealth of seabed wildlife off the west coast of Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s marine watchdog has seized dredging gear and submitted a report to the Procurator Fiscal accusing fishermen of illegally scraping the seafloor for the lucrative shellfish in the Firth of Lorn, a large nature conservation area south of the island of Mull.

The move comes in the wake of new evidence that an eight-year ban on scallop-dredging in the firth has been ignored by fishermen. At the same time, fierce arguments between the industry and conservationists over a planned new system of marine protected areas are coming to a head.

Over 200 square kilometres of the Firth of Lorn, which contains the famed Corryvreckan whirlpool, are designated as a Special Area of Conversation (SAC). This gives legal protection to rocky reefs and the endangered and unusual marine wildlife they support, such as sponges, seafans, featherstars and coral.

Scientists say that scallop dredging, which pulls toothed rakes across the seafloor, can inflict serious damage to wildlife. In 2007 the Scottish Government banned all scallop dredging in the Firth of Lorn SAC.

Ministers ordered to name the salmon farms that shoot seals

from The National, 8 July 2015

The Scottish Government has lost a long-running battle to keep the names of fish farms that shoot seals secret.

In two rulings yesterday, the Scottish Information Commissioner, Rosemary Agnew, ordered ministers to identify the individual farms responsible for killing 185 seals in 2013 and 2014. She dismissed the government’s argument that this could put staff and their families at risk from protestors.

Her decision was welcomed as a “landmark victory” by environmental campaigners, who are urging the public to boycott salmon from seal-shooting farms. The salmon farming industry stressed, however, that shooting was “always a last resort”.

Salmon farmers, river fisheries and salmon netters are licenced to shoot seals to prevent them eating fish. Over the four years to 2014, they shot a total of 1,371 grey and harbour seals, according to figures from the Scottish Government.

For the last two years the Montrose-based salmon netting company, Usan Salmon Fisheries, has been targeted by animal right activists trying to prevent seals from being killed. Our sister paper, the Sunday Herald, revealed last month that police had sent three reports to the procurator fiscal accusing both sides of breaking the law.

Whales and wildlife ‘under threat’ if Highland animal lab closes

from The National, 6 July 2015

Whales, wildlife and farm animals across a large swath of northern Scotland could all suffer if a veterinary health laboratory funded by the Scottish Government is forced to close, campaigners have warned. 

Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) is planning to save £400,000 a year by closing the animal disease surveillance centre in Inverness. Across the Highlands, the centre looks after the health of agricultural livestock, helps investigate wildlife crime like the poisoning of birds of prey, and leads work on the hundreds of whales, dolphins and seals stranded and killed around Scotland’s shores. 

SRUC has launched a consultation proposing that the Inverness centre’s work should be taken over by laboratories in Thurso, Aberdeen and Perth. The consultation is due to close this week, and then go to the Scottish Government for a decision. 

Local politicians, farmers and vets have all protested against the proposed closure. But they have now been joined by environmental groups, alarmed at the implications for wildlife.

“The loss of the animal disease centre in Inverness will be a huge blow to the research being done to help save marine mammals,” said Alan Knight, chair of British Divers Marine Life Rescue.

“I have worked with the team at the Scottish marine animals stranding scheme for many years and we have changed our rescue protocols as a direct result of their research. To close the centre with no thought being given to where the scheme will be housed is beyond belief.”

Charges looming in impassioned battle to save seals from being shot

from Sunday Herald, 28 June 2015 

Both sides in Scotland’s escalating seal-shooting wars could face charges after a series of dramatic confrontations between salmon fishermen and animal rights activists on cliffs and beaches along the north and east coasts.

Police have revealed that they have sent reports to the procurator fiscal about three recent incidents involving members of Montrose-based Usan Salmon Fisheries and the international environmental group, Sea Shepherd. The company has been shooting seals to prevent them eating salmon caught in nets, while the activists have been trying to protect the seals.

One incident on the 19 May in Gamrie Bay near Gardenstown in Aberdeenshire is understood to be about the alleged killing of legally protected seabirds. A second incident in the same place on 12 June concerned an alleged breach of the peace. 

The third incident was on 10 June at Murkle Bay near Castletown in Caithness and involved alleged reckless conduct. According to police sources, both the salmon company and Sea Shepherd made complaints against each other, and both were the subjects of reports to the procurator fiscal.

On another occasion on 2 June at the village of Crovie on Gamrie Bay police firearms officers attended and were seen to take possession of a rifle and ammunition while a complaint was investigated. The rifle was returned and “no criminality” was found.

Navy bomb disposal blamed for killing 19 whales on north coast of Scotland

from The Guardian, 24 June 2015

Four large bombs exploded underwater by the Royal Navy were to blame for a mass stranding which killed 19 pilot whales on the north coast of Scotland in 2011, government scientists have concluded.

A long-delayed report released online today by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs says that the noise from the explosions could have damaged the hearing and navigational abilities of the whales, causing them to beach and die.

On 22 July 2011 70 long-finned pilot whales swam into the Kyle of Durness, a shallow tidal inlet east of Cape Wrath, Europe’s largest live bombing range. Despite attempts to herd them back out to sea, 39 were left stranded by the tide. 

Concerted efforts by expert teams and local people managed to refloat 20, but 19 ended up dead. It was one of the largest mass strandings in recent years, and it prompted a government-funded investigation by 12 scientists from laboratories across the UK.

Their report reveals that three 1000-pound bombs were detonated in the sea nearby by the Royal Navy’s Northern Diving Group in the 24 hours before the whales were stranded. A fourth 250-pound bomb was exploded after stranding began.

Algae could help clean up sewage pollution

from Sunday Herald, 7 June 2015

Thousands of samples of algae that could hold the key to cleaning up sewage pollution will have to be re-examined because they have been wrongly classified by scientists.

A so-called ‘algae bank’ at the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban is embarking on the mammoth task of checking all 3,000 of its colourful, slimy samples to make sure that they have been correctly identified. 

This is crucial, researchers say, so that the “amazing capacity” of algae to combat water contaminated by human or animal wastes can be realised. Algae also has “huge potential” to produce energy, food and medicines, they claim.

A new study in the science journal, Nature, has revealed that 32 strains of algae that were catalogued under the same heading were actually four distinct sub-groups. They also included a completely new species. 

Now scientists at the Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa at Oban are preparing to reanalyse and re-label all their samples. “We’re only just beginning to understand the vast unlocked potential of algae as an energy source, a clean-up tool and as a food,” said Dr Gary Caldwell, an expert from Newcastle University involved in the project.

“And part of the reason for this is that we still know relatively little about them.  Properly identifying and categorising the different strains is a key step towards unlocking that potential and that is why research like this is so important.”

Salmon farm drug that kills wildlife to be withdrawn from market

from Sunday Herald, 10 May 2015

A toxic drug fed to caged salmon in Scotland is due to be withdrawn from the market after scientists found that that it can leak into lochs and kill crabs, shrimps and lobsters.

Food pellets laced with a chemical called teflubenzuron have long been given to farmed salmon around the coast in order to control sea lice infestations. The lice eat salmon, killing them or stunting their growth, and can cause multi-million-pound losses for fish farmers.

But salmon excrete the chemical, which then pollutes the seabed around fish farms at levels than can be lethal to marine wildlife. Shellfish are poisoned and prevented from making new shells to protect them as they grow.

Now the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) says it has persuaded the company that markets the drug to withdraw it. Campaigners, however, warn that replacement drugs could do just as much harm, and are demanding a much broader legal ban.

The latest research on teflubenzuron was conducted by scientists from the Institute of Marine Research and the National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research in Bergen, Norway. They detected high concentrations in sediment around a salmon farm on a fjord north of the city.

Government under fire for letting shipping off the hook on corkscrew seal deaths

from The National, 20 April 2015

The Scottish Government has been accused of rushing to publish new findings on the horrific corkscrew injuries that kill seals in order to let the shipping industry off the hook.

Internal documents show that officials moved rapidly to release research suggesting that cannibal seals were to blame for causing the lethal spiral lacerations, rather than ships’ propellers. They planned to tip the shipping industry off about the research ahead of environmental groups, saying it required “careful handling”.

At least a hundred seals have been killed by corkscrew injuries in Scotland since 2009, most of them in the firths of Forth and Tay. Government scientists initially attributed the injuries to seals getting caught in ducted propellers widely used by offshore industries.

But in December researchers witnessed an adult male grey seal in the Firth of Forth attacking grey seal pups, leaving them with distinctive corkscrew injuries. Documents released by the Scottish Government under freedom of information law show that after two meetings in January, publication of the evidence was fast-tracked, leading to its release on 4 February. 

In a confidential memo to the Environment Minister, Richard Lochhead, on 30 January, a senior official with Marine Scotland, Ian Walker, recommended immediate publication “in order to allow developers to adjust their proposals in light of its findings”.

Complaint over ‘catastrophic’ seawater dumping in Orkney

from Sunday Herald, 29 March 2015

The Scottish and UK governments have been reported to the European Commission for ignoring their environmental advisers and giving the go ahead to the dumping of seawater from ships in one of Scotland’s most precious and historic bays.

Critics fear that allowing oil tankers to discharge their ballast water into Scapa Flow in Orkney could be “catastrophic”. The water brought in from elsewhere will cause pollution and introduce invasive alien species that could wreck wildlife and a multi-million pound fishing industry, they say.

Orkney Islands Council, however, insists that there are sufficient safeguards in place to keep Scapa Flow “pristine”. Oil tankers began emptying their ballast tanks into the bay earlier this month, as they transfer oil between ships.

Previously, tankers weren’t allowed to dump their ballast water in Scapa Flow, but had to do so out at sea. The bay is a 120 square-mile sheltered natural harbour, where the Germans famously scuttled 74 warships in 1919 to avoid them falling into British hands.

Scapa Flow is also linked to the Loch of Stenness, the largest brackish lagoon in the UK. The lagoon is protected under European law as a special area of conservation for its unusual marine life, and is a wintering ground for wildfowl including tufted duck, scaup and goldeneye.

New fears over corkscrew injuries to seals

from Sunday Herald, 08 March 2015

A coalition of wildlife and conservation groups are urging the Scottish and UK governments to withdraw advice to the shipping industry that could see more seals killed by corkscrew injuries.

Official advice was changed last month after researchers found evidence that an adult male grey seal in the Firth of Forth had killed young grey seals and left distinctive spiral lacerations around their bodies. Before that, ships using ducted propellers had been blamed by scientists for the horrific wounds, thought to have killed at least 100 seals in Scotland.

But now 19 environmental groups are saying that propellers have not been ruled out as causes of injury so it’s “premature” to let ships off the hook. Previous precautionary advice not to use ducted propellers near seal conservation areas and to avoid the breeding season should be reinstated, they say.

New advice, given internally to staff at Scottish Natural Heritage and other government wildlife agencies across the UK, concludes that ducted propellers may not be responsible for corkscrew injuries. “Therefore mitigation measures and monitoring may not be necessary,” it says.

But the new advice also accepts that that “it would be premature to completely discount the possibility that some of the corkscrew injuries are caused by interactions with propellers”.

Scotland’s deep sea wildlife under threat from foreign fishing trawlers

from Sunday Herald, 09 November 2014

The wildlife is thousands of years old, there are millions of species that have not yet been discovered and it is by far the biggest space for life on earth. But environmentalists say it is now being destroyed. 

The world’s deep ocean environment is perhaps the most important and least understood of the planet’s natural habitats. But west of Scotland it has been targeted by foreign fishing trawlers that drag heavy nets across the seabed, damaging all in their path. 

The European Commission (EC) has proposed a ban, unleashing fury from the fishing industry and meeting opposition from the Scottish and UK governments. But pressure is now mounting on ministers to back the ban, with a petition signed by nearly 15,000 people and promoted by a coalition of ten environmental groups.

Allowing the trawling of the deep sea bottom is like letting “Stonehenge be bulldozed,” they say. But this is angrily disputed by fishing leaders, who attack environmentalists as “emotive” and the EC’s proposed ban as a “knee-jerk reaction”.

The deep sea, defined as waters deeper than 200 metres, makes up 98 per cent of all the space in which life on earth can develop. It is the world’s richest source of wildlife, with an estimated one to ten million species still to be discovered.

It can also provide rich picking for fishing boats, with French and Spanish trawlers reporting annual catches of around 6,000 tonnes each, including black scabbardfish, roundnose grenadier and blue ling. Much of this is from UK and Irish waters, including the northern Atlantic around Rockall to the west of Scotland.

Row looming over poor protection for marine wildlife

from Sunday Herald, 09 November 2014

New Scottish government proposals meant to protect marine wildlife will be greeted by a barrage of criticism this week for failing to prevent the damage being done by the fishing industry.

Environmental groups are preparing to savage management arrangements planned for a new network of marine protected areas around Scotland. The measures will enable business as usual for fishing boats, they will say, and precious wildlife sites will suffer as a result.

This weekend, a survey ship is due off Wester Ross to look for evidence of the kind of valuable underwater habitats that risk losing out. It is searching for lush, purple-pink seabed forests known as maerl beds in the hope they can be mapped and protected from dredgers.

On Tuesday the Scottish government is due to launch a major consultation on how 11 marine protected areas (MPAs) around the coast should be managed. The Sunday Herald understands that it will fall far short of what environmental groups were hoping for.

“We have always said that without effective management, MPAs are simply paper parks,” said Calum Duncan, convenor of Scottish Environment Link’s marine taskforce and Scottish programme manager for the Marine Conservation Society.

Demand for ban on propellers that slice hundreds of seals to death

from Sunday Herald, 02 November 2014

New evidence that hundreds of seals have been slashed to death and beheaded by a type of propeller used in shipping and offshore industries has prompted a powerful plea for a worldwide ban.

A scientific study for the Scottish government by the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews University has confirmed that seals caught in ducted propellers suffer horrific and fatal “corkscrew” gashes. Larger seals could be decapitated by the blades, it suggests.

Ducted propellers run inside a casing, which makes them more efficient at low speeds, but it is thought the animals get trapped between the propeller blades and the casing.

Angered by the slaughter, a coalition of 26 wildlife and conservation groups is now demanding a Scottish, UK and international ban on the guilty propellers. They have written to the Scottish and UK governments warning that they are breaking the law by failing to protect seals.

“This is one of the UK’s biggest marine conservation and welfare tragedies,” said Sarah Dolman, 
Northeast Atlantic programme manager for Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the group that co-ordinated the joint letter.

“This latest evidence confirms that seals are being sliced up by some kinds of ships’ propellers and possibly in much greater numbers than previously realised. Despite the worst affected populations of harbour seals heading for local extinction, we have not seen any evidence that the UK and devolved governments plan to act to stop these needless deaths.”

Exposed: the madness of the great international salmon swap

for Sunday Herald, 07 September 2014

A huge leap in imports of cheap salmon from abroad has exposed the “utter madness” of the world food trade, say environmental campaigners.

New figures released by the UK government reveal that imports of salmon from the Faroes, Sweden and elsewhere have risen ten times faster than exports. This is despite the claimed success of Scotland’s salmon export business.

The UK now imports nearly two-thirds as much salmon as it exports, often to and from the same countries. Dubbed “the great salmon swap” and denounced as “a consumer con” by critics, the trade is defended by the salmon farming industry and the Scottish government.

Detailed data disclosed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in London reveal that UK imports of fresh, smoked and frozen salmon rocketed by over 500 per cent from 11,176 tonnes in 2003 to 69,328 tonnes in 2013. At the same time UK salmon exports rose just 50 per cent from 73,529 to 111,293 tonnes.

The vast majority of the imports were from the Faroe Islands and Sweden, some of which may have originated in Norway. Thousands of tonnes of salmon were also imported from, and exported to the same countries.

Nearly 2,300 tonnes of salmon were imported from Germany in 2013, while just under 2,200 tonnes were exported there. There were also large salmon swaps with China, Poland and Denmark (see tables below).