Animal charities welcome NatureScot recommendations to reject guga hunt licence

Young gannets – guga – are taken from open cliffs using a pole and noose, before being gutted, salted and preserved in brine (Danny Lawson/PA) - (PA Archive)

Animal welfare charities have welcomed NatureScot’s recommendation that a licence not be granted for this year’s guga hunt on a remote Scottish island but called for the Scottish Government to make the ban permanent.

The hunt has been an annual tradition in Ness, north Lewis, since the 15th century, with 10 men setting out for the rocky island of Sula Sgeir 40 miles away.