A guerrilla animal rights group may have visited the north-east for the last time now that wild salmon netting has been banned.
In recent years, Sea Shepherd UK’s seal defence team has laid siege to marksmen who they allege have killed seals to protect salmon stocks in Gamrie Bay.
But now the Scottish Government has announced that from April 1, “killing outwith estuary limits will be prohibited for three years due to the mixed stock nature of the fishery and limited data on the composition of the catch”.
In the wake of the announcement, a spokesman for the conservation group said their mission in the region is complete.
In a statement, the spokesman said: “For the last two years Sea Shepherd UK has actively campaigned to protect Scotland’s harbour and grey seals from being killed by the UK’s most notorious shooters of seals – Scotland’s wild salmon netting companies.”
Sea Shepherd – who operated on the Caithness, Moray and Aberdeenshire coastlines – has also claimed the announcement as a victory for their campaign.
The spokesman added: “With coastal wild salmon netting prohibited for 3 years this ends the legal shooting of seals by such companies and since there will be no ‘fixed engine’ salmon nets in the water it likely ends any illegal shooting of seals, especially as we now have local volunteers watching these coastal locations.”
The group will now turn its attention to other reports of seal killing around the UK as well as investigating other marine wildlife crime.
At the peak of the campaign there were more than 70 international Sea Shepherd volunteers stationed at sites across Scotland.
The volunteers repeatedly clashed with seal shooters in often dramatic scenes, and in August last year the Press and Journal revealed the teams were using drone technology in their battle against marksmen.