Contacting your MP
If you live in the UK, please contact your MP and/or MSP and Welsh Assembly Member, and ask them to help protect the Moray Firth dolphins.
To find contact details for your MP go to:
http://www.upmystreet.com/commons/l/
If you live in Scotland, you can also find your MSP at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/membersPages/index.htm
If you live in Wales, you can also find your Welsh Assembly Member at:
http://www.assemblywales.org/memhome/member-search.htm
You can either write to the relevant contact or better yet go and see them. The Government is in the process of making up its mind about oil and gas licensing in the Moray Firth Special Area of Conservation and we don’t know how long this will take.
When you contact your MP, please ensure you are polite. Express your concerns and ask them to act on your behalf. Detailed below are some points that you may wish to raise and some background information about the Moray Firth and the threats to the dolphins.
Important points to raise with your MP
- Oil and gas development within a dolphin sanctuary area is totally unacceptable.
- The Inner Moray Firth is designated as a Special Area of Conservation for bottlenose dolphins and under European legislation any proposed developments around the bottlenose dolphins’ home range has to demonstrate that they will not have an impact on the dolphins’ future before they are allowed to proceed. This has not been done.
- Oil and gas exploration and development can generate intense noise, chemical pollution and habitat degradation over long time periods and such activities should be unacceptable within a dolphin sanctuary.
- We urgently need strong, effective, transparent, enforceable and joined-up legislation throughout the UK to better protect dolphins, whales and porpoises all around our coast.
What is the Government proposing?
The Government is currently considering the licensing of oil and gas exploration and production in the bottlenose dolphin Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) in the Moray Firth and Cardigan Bay. Following public concern, the Government examined this matter, by a process called ‘Appropriate Assessment’. The results of this process were released in December 2007 and at the same time the Minister for Energy announced that it was likely that oil and gas work would go ahead in the Moray Firth SAC, but not for the moment at least in Cardigan Bay. You will find a summary of our concerns about the Appropriate Assessment here.
Why is the Special Area of Conservation important?
The Moray Firth is home to a small, isolated and very vulnerable population of around 130 bottlenose dolphins. Noting their small population size and isolation from other populations (and the relative rarity of bottlenose dolphins in the UK’s coastal waters) it was not surprising when a bottlenose dolphin Special Area of Conservation (SAC) was put in place by the UK Government in 2005.
That the SAC offers real protection for the dolphins is both important for their survival and a matter of EU law. Should the Government allow oil and gas exploration and production to go ahead in the SAC, the value of this protected area will certainly be less and protection afforded to other threatened marine life across Europe through similar SACs could also be threatened.
The Moray Firth SAC covers the inner Firth waters – a line of water between Helmsdale on the Sutherland coast and Lossiemouth on the Moray coast. The SAC encompasses both the Beauly and Inverness Firths, and the outer reaches of the Dornoch and Cromarty Firths.
The dolphins’ SAC is characterised by the moderate to strong currents that occur at the narrow entrances to the Inner Firths which may help to corral fish that make these areas important for the dolphins to feed – and such great places for us to watch the animals from land, a privilege indeed! Yet the SAC only covers a percentage of the dolphins’ home range, and whilst some of the population seem to spend their entire lives within the SAC, others range along the coast of the Moray Firth to Aberdeen, Tay, the Firth of Forth and possibly beyond!
About the Moray Firth
The Moray Firth, situated on the north-east coast of Scotland, is the widest and deepest Firth in Scotland. It contains a diversity of marine life all year round, including European protected species such as harbour porpoises and other cetaceans, harbour seals, grey seals and otters. It is also important habitat for a host of seasonal visitors including vulnerable basking sharks, humpback and fin whales as well as white-beaked and Atlantic white-sided dolphins.
Much of the Moray Firth’s 800 km of coastline is characterised by sweeping sandy beaches and dunes that lie within a fertile lowland strip, and include haul-out sites for the Firth’s declining harbour seal populations and tidal mud flats that are important for shore birds. Cliffs and rocky shores occur where the high ground extends to the coast and these make important breeding sites for seabird colonies. The Moray Firth boasts internationally significant numbers of bottlenose dolphins, harbour seals, seabirds and sea ducks.