Scottish islanders refused permission to stage annual seabird chicks hunt
Each year hundreds of gannet chicks are killed for their meat on the uninhabited Hebridean island of Sula Sgeir.
A team of hunters go to the small island of Sula Sgeir to kill young gannets
Permission has been refused for a guga hunt which would have seen hundreds of young seabirds killed on an uninhabited Hebridean island.
For centuries, gannet chicks have been hunted for their meat each summer on Sula Sgeir, a small rocky island 40 miles (64km) north of Ness on Lewis.
Modern hunts require a licence from public agency NatureScot, which rejected the application this year due to concerns about the impact on the gannet population.
Animal welfare groups have welcomed the decision, but supporters accused campaigners of "bullying" a small island community.
The decision to refuse a licence for Scotland's last remaining guga hunt this year was taken by NatureScot's board following a recommendation by officials.
Gannet chicks on Bass Rock were once hunted and sold in a market in Edinburgh
Hunting seabirds on Sula Sgeir goes back to the time of the Vikings, according to historian Donald S Murray, author of the book The Guga Hunters.
Murray told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast that historically birds were a vital source of food for people living in Ness, Lewis, on the North Atlantic coast.
He said the area had "geographical difficulties". Rough seas made fishing hazardous and there were challenges around the quantity and quality of the land, which was mostly moorland.
A group of 10 islanders, known as the Men of Ness, would spend about 10 days in August harvesting chicks, which are known as guga.
In the past, other parts of Scotland - including Orkney and Shetland - also had seabird hunts.
On St Kilda, before the archipelago was abandoned in 1930, birds were killed for their meat and also oils for fuel and waterproofing, while the feathers were used for clothing and bedding. Eggs were also collected as food.
Gannet chicks taken from Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth were sold in a market in Edinburgh.
The meat has been described as tasting like a cross between kipper and steak or "salty goose" and, less flatteringly, as "rotten leather and fishy beef", external.
Other descriptions have included it being like a mix of anchovy paste and high-strength cod liver oil.
Campaigners outside the Scottish parliament during a protest in January
Opponents say the hunt is no longer needed to feed islanders and describe the method used to kill the chicks as cruel.
Harvesting methods have remained largely traditional, according to a report by the Scottish Seabird Centre, external.
Hunters use long poles fitted with a noose to catch chicks in their nests before being killed, u
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