Cape Wrath Nato exercise is 'madness'

[Cetacea]

Cape Wrath Nato exercise is 'madness'

A MASSIVE MULTINATIONAL military exercise under way in the far northwest of Scotland is putting lambs, seabirds and possibly whales at risk.

Around 70 aircraft and 36 warships are bombarding Cape Wrath, near Durness, as part of a two-week exercise codenamed Joint Warrior involving 17 Nato countries, including the UK, US, Canada and France.

However, the area is surrounded by farms, is vital to Scotland's collapsing seabird populations and is frequented by whales and dolphins. Cape Wrath's northern sea cliffs have been designated a special protection area for birds under European law.

Farmers and wildlife experts are alarmed by the impact of Joint Warrior, only the second such exercise to take place in the spring. It coincides with the area's three-week lambing period and the start of the breeding season for seabirds such as puffins and kittiwakes.

"It's a darn nuisance," said Hamish Campbell, 70, who manages 3000 sheep at Balkeil Farm, near Cape Wrath. "It's the wrong time of year and I'm very unhappy. We would rather they left the sheep in peace at this time of year."

The animals are disturbed by the noise of exploding shells, low-flying helicopters and jets, as well as being at risk from increased road traffic. "The whole house rattles when they start the bombing," he said. "When I was out this morning, they were shooting over my head. It's not good."

Campbell, who has farmed in the area since 1954, has had to move sheep from the 1000 acres he manages on the Cape Wrath firing range. "There was a consultation meeting (with the exercise commanders), but they just told us what was going to happen," he said.

The land protection organisation, the John Muir Trust, owns the Sandwood estate to the south of the firing range. "Cape Wrath is one of the most remote and fragile areas of mainland Britain," said trust chief executive Nigel Hawking. "How many of the other 16 nations involved in this Nato exercise would agree to the wholesale bombardment by sea and air of such an important part of their own territory?"

Hawking said Cape Wrath is a sanctuary for an estimated 50,000 nesting seabirds, including puffins, razorbills, guillemots, kittiwakes and fulmars. But the trust's bird counts along the cliffs of Sandwood have shown a dramatic decline in numbers in the past five years, probably due to food shortages caused by climate change.

"It seems madness to add this further pressure on an already fragile population," said Hawking. "We urge the ministry of defence (MoD) to change the dates of all future Joint Warrior exercises to avoid the most critical seabird breeding season in April, May and June."

Similar concerns have been raised by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which has asked the MoD to try to avoid the sea cliffs.

The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) is also worried that the use of underwater sonar in the exercise could harm whales. Since February, the bodies of 24 stranded whales have been found around the west coast of Scotland, which the society believes could be linked to previous use of sonar.

"There is no doubt mid-frequency active sonar injures and kills whales," said the WDCS's Sarah Dolman.

The MoD, however, insists its activities are not responsible for the stranded whales. The navy only uses sonar after it has checked no cetaceans are present, said MoD spokesman Neil Smith.

The MoD had agreed to reduce the number of flights above Cape Wrath by more than 50%, he pointed out. Joint Warrior also utilises other areas around the UK, and has been cut back from three times a year to two.

"Reducing flight numbers over the northwest of Scotland will cause a significant reduction in the total noise generated there, as will our agreement to stop live aircraft bombing and use practice weapons instead at Cape Wrath," added Smith. "At all times we have striven to achieve an appropriate balance between the needs of local people and the needs of military personnel who use this exercise to prepare for operational deployments around the globe."

A spokesman for the Scottish government said: "While we understand the need for training exercises, local interests, including biodiversity and farming, must always be taken into account."

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