News / Mystery bird deaths at Nesbister
MYSTERY surrounds the death of around 20 seabirds that washed up on a scenic beach in Shetland this week.
Scottish Natural Heritage area officer Juan Brown said 14 cormorants and five shags were found on the beach at Nesbister, in Whiteness, on Tuesday.
Mr Brown said it was difficult to point blame at anyone for the deaths, but added: “It was more than natural causes that caused that number of birds to be washed up in one place all of a similar freshness.”
Initially suspicion fell upon the salmon industry, who have cages south of Whiteness Voe, as seabirds are known to either become caught in aquaculture nets or enter cages under the nets.
However David Sandison, of fish farming trades body Shetland Aquaculture, said that he had investigated the deaths and found no connection with any of his members.
“SNH asked me to look into this and make enquiries. I have since talked to the salmon companies in the area and asked for any insight into this and there is absolutely no linkage whatsoever to any of the sites in the area,” Mr Sandison said.
He said that birds do become trapped in nets and cages, but it was unlikely to have anything to do with the fish farms.
There were no signs of the birds being shot or having been caught in a net, he said.
Mr Brown said: “The corpses are a bit of a mystery and we are working closely with the aquaculture industry in case there is a link.”
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