FARMERS are seeking curbs on the growing sea eagle population because of their deadly impact on sheep and other wildlife which they fear threatens to get out of control.
Representatives from the farming community in Argyll will meet Scottish Natural Heritage, which is already conducting a review of the management scheme overseeing the birds, in a bid to discuss their concerns today.
It comes after The Herald reported claims that sea eagles were no longer just attacking crofters' lambs in the Outer Isles, but were also killing larger stock such as hoggs, the stage between lambs and sheep. There have been repeated reports of them killing lambs in the likes of Wester Ross, Skye and other areas on the west coast including Argyll.
The issue has been raised at a National Farmers Union (NFU) Scotland branch meeting in Oban. A resolution asked NFUS headquarters to formally acknowledge "the ever expanding population of sea eagles is unsustainable and certain things need to happen to stop the situation getting more out of control".
Euan Warnock, NFUS local secretary for Oban and a farmer on Mull, told The Scottish Farmer magazine he was keen to discuss the issue with SNH at today's meeting in Oban. He said: "This is an opportunity to say enough is enough, we need to talk about the impact the birds are having not only on sheep, but on the wider biodiversity of the area."
He said farmers in Argyll were seeking official recognition the population had reached a peak, and that control measures were now needed to keep it in balance.
The Sea Eagle Management Scheme run by SNH makes annual payments to crofters and farmers affected but Mr Warnock said more measures were needed to ensure the situation does not worsen.
"It's not just about financial compensation - we need effective policy to be implemented or who knows where we will be in 10 years' time."
Mr Warnock said there was also concern about the impact of sea eagles on other wildlife, particularly the golden eagle, "There is a suggestion sea eagles are pushing golden eagles out of their territory. The experience we've had on Mull is the golden eagles are breeding less often.
"It's smaller animals as well. We had a lot of brown hares and speaking to members, hardly anyone sees brown hares any more. On Mull there are wild goats and a lot of members don't see as many young goats on the island so are concerned the sea eagles are effecting the population's breeding success."
An SNH spokeswoman said: "We have hired an external consultant to review the existing scheme, and as part of the review, he's seeking the views of the participants of the existing scheme. We're hoping to have the consultant's work finished by the end of March."
She said there was not any detail of the review yet, but there was an assessment panel which had representatives of RSPB, SNH, the Crofting Federaton and NFUS.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article