News / Illegally dumped netting threatens seabirds
A MASS of rope and illegal monofilament netting dumped over one of Shetland’s most popular cliffs has caused outrage in the islands’ north mainland.
The netting and rope have been left hanging beside seabird nests on the cliffs at Calders Geo, near the Eshaness lighthouse, a popular destination for locals and visitors alike.
Shetland Islands Council is appealing for information about who might have dumped the illegal net so they can take legal action in the courts.
Meanwhile Shetland coastguard has agreed to carry out a risk assessment before carrying out a training exercise to remove the net.
The netting was first spotted last month, but the authorities have only become involved in the past few days.
SIC infrastructure director Maggie Sandison said: “Fly tipping is an offence and the council will pursue anyone caught fly tipping to prosecute them.
“If anybody has any information in terms of who may have dumped the items over the cliffs we would be interested in hearing from them.
“It’s extremely disappointing that people in Shetland are actively choosing to harm our environment in this way, particularly in an area which is so well known for its wild birds and when the type of material that’s been dumped is likely to cause problems with birds getting entangled in the netting.”
Aberdeen University ornithologist Martin Heubeck, who has been monitoring seabirds around Shetland for almost 40 years, said the netting posed a real hazard to nesting fulmars, or “maalies” as they are known locally.
He also stressed such behaviour reflected very poorly on the islands at a time they were coming increasingly in the limelight.
“Seabirds are under real pressure as it is and they don’t need some kind of idiot doing something like this,” he said.
“This is one of Shetland’s iconic geos which featured in the last ‘Shetland’ TV programme. It gets a lot of visitors every year and this does not reflect well on Shetland as a whole.”
Concerns have also been raised about the threat the netting would have if it had entered the sea, potentially entangling and eventually killing marine mammals.
Calders Geo has been a widely used by people dumping rubbish in the past, as its sheer, steep cliffs are easily accessible from the road, but such behaviour has tailed off in recent years.
Heubeck said: “I have seen rubbish, fencing wire and all that sort of stuff dumped there, but seeing what appears to be monofilament net in there is disgraceful in terms of the potential harm it could cause birds entangling themselves.”
He said that fulmar numbers have been gradually declining over the past decade or so, though not to the same extent as some bird species like kittiwakes.
He added that the maritime grassland above the Eshaness cliffs was “incredibly fragile” and could take years to recover after being damaged by the wheels of a vehicle taking rubbish there to dump.
There have been fears that fly tipping would be on the increase since the council stopped paying for community skips last year as part of its wider budget cutting strategy.
However Sandison said that the council had received fewer complaints over the past year than previously.
She said this could be because in the past the skips themselves could cause problems with windblown litter.
“And maybe there is just more general public awareness of the responsibility to try and keep Shetland looking nice, especially with so many people volunteering for the Voar Redd Up.”
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