A petition calling for the annual guga hunt in the Western Isles to be banned has attracted more than 72,000 supporters.
The petition was sparked after publicity about the inaugural World Guga Eating Championships held at Ness on Lewis last year.
The Californian campaign website, Care2, criticises the tradition of the annual hunt for gannet chicks – known in Gaelic as guga – and branded the cooked guga-eating contest as “grotesque”.
Thousands of young gannet chicks are killed every year as part of the annual guga hunt on Sula Sgeir, an uninhabited island west of North Rona.
The seabirds are protected under European Union law, but islanders have exemption to take 2,000. For at least 400 years, men from Ness on Lewis have gone to the island to kill the gannets after they are caught with loops on the end of poles.
The boiled meat of the young birds is a delicacy for islanders and last year the inaugural World Guga Eating Championships was held in a social club in Ness and won by oil rig worker Peter MacCritchie, 33, of Glasgow.
He took just 3 minutes 44 seconds to eat half a guga and 14oz of potatoes.
The contest prompted the online petition, which states the “grotesque gannet-chick eating contest” is “shocking”.
It continues: “This would be illegal anywhere else in Scotland – seabirds are protected.
“But the residents of Ness district get a special licence to slaughter some 2,000 gannets a year, supposedly in the name of tradition.
“Hitting gannet chicks with sticks is a “tradition” we could do without.
“Tell the local council that the 21st century started a while ago and demand they ban the killing of seabird chicks, full stop.”
A spokesman for the social club said: “There have been many and varied inaccuracies reported over the past weeks relating to the competition held in our private members club.
“We would also seek to clarify that it has nothing whatsoever to do with Ness Football Club.”
Contest organiser Donald MacSween said previously: “The guga is an important part of our heritage and history and very much a part of who we are in Ness.
“We are very proud of the guga.”
The Scottish SPCA previously said the method of killing the birds was an “abhorrent method of slaughter” and should be banned, but Scottish Natural Heritage said the licence includes a condition to ensure the birds are humanely dispatched.
SNH has also said the practice is sustainable.