Marine Connection welcomes the news that Port of Cromarty Firth will not be resubmitting its application for ship-to-ship transfers of oil in the Moray Firth, Scotland.
Carried out at sea, ship-to-ship transfers happen when a smaller vessel supplies a larger tanker with oil while moored alongside and although common in the global oil trade, oil spills can overflow through negligence or by accident. The operations would have been carried out in waters near the South and North Sutors – one of the most important feeding areas for the resident population of bottlenose dolphins, harbour porpoises, minke whales and other marine and bird life which frequent the area.
If the application had been authorised, it would have resulted in nearly 8,640,000 tonnes of oil per year being transferred and even a small oil spill could have been catastrophic for marine life, coastline and local communities. In a short statement, the Port of Cromarty Firth said: “Due to higher priority projects the port will not be pursuing the resubmission of our ship to ship at anchor application” – however there is no doubt that public pressure played more of a part in this decision than the Port Authority is willing to admit.
A three-year campaign against the oil transfers was led by Cromarty Rising, supported by Marine Connection, Nairn Rising and many others. An online petition ‘Save Our Dolphins’ gathered over 103,000 signatures and in early 2017 a demonstration was held outside the Scottish Parliament.
Thank you to everyone who signed the petition via our social media platforms and supported this campaign – proving this was indeed “the wrong plan in the wrong place” and that by working together, threats to wild cetaceans and the marine environment can be stopped.
