THE official guardians of Scotland’s wildlife fear even the smallest spill from planned ship-to-ship oil transfers could pose a significant threat to protected dolphins.
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) also highlighted the danger of pollution to environmental sites and bird sanctuaries near the Cromarty Firth.
The area's port authority (CFPA) has applied for a licence to conduct the crude oil transfers between tankers anchored at sea.
Some 180,000 tonnes would be transferred four times a month to a maximum of 8,640,000 tonnes a year.
The plan has outraged local people and environmentalists, who say there is no need as oil transfers have been conducted safely at the nearby Nigg facility’s jetty for many years.
Steve North, operations manager from SNH said the agency agreed with CFPA’s environmental statement identifying the key issues as the risks posed from oil pollution, ballast water discharges, increased shipping movement and underwater noise.
“However we do not agree with the conclusion of the environmental statement that there will be no likely significant effect on European designated sites, so we have advised the MCA that further assessment is required.
“Whilst we consider that mitigation can reduce adverse effects, we do not think that the risks can be eliminated altogether. Risks to the bottlenose dolphins are particularly significant. The entrance to the Cromarty Firth is extremely important to the dolphins and a large proportion of the local population use these waters all year. Even small oil spills could have a significant effect on them.”
He said SNH had not officially objected but the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) was required to take its advice into account.
However RSPB Scotland, the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the National Trust for Scotland, have all objected, and more than 6,000 people have signed two petitions opposing the plan.
But Bob Buskie, the CEO of the port authority, said: “We fully understand SNH’s concerns which the port will now discuss and take forward with the MCA.
"We have to stress the port takes its environmental responsibilities extremely seriously, in fact the port has a legal responsibility to safeguard the environment of the Firth. “
He said the current oil spill contingency plan had been approved last year by the MCA following a period of consultation with Marine Scotland, SNH, Highland Council and SEPA.
An MCA spokeswoman said: application. We will continue to engage with relevant stakeholders, including the Scottish Government, before any decision is made.”
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 here