Help protect the Moray Firth dolphins

06 October 2016

The well-being and possibly the survival of the Moray Firth Dolphins is under threat from a proposal to transfer oil between tankers at sea off the mouth of the Cromarty Firth.  Please contribute now to help pay for legal advice to fight this threat.

Cromartyrising        funding appeal      
Crowdfunding site  https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/CromartyS2S

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In December 2015 the Cromarty Firth Port Authority applied to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency for a licence to carry out ship to ship oil transfers at sea off the mouth of the Cromarty Firth, in an area with one of the  highest concentrations of the Moray Firth bottlenose dolphin population.  There was intense opposition to the application from the local community, expressed at a public meeting in Cromarty in January (which CFPA declined to attend), and by objections to the licence application from Cromarty District Council, TBI, and numerous other bodies and individuals.  A website - www.cromartyrising.com - was set up to provide information about the application and responses to it, and news on the progress of the opposition campaign.  Events and activities at that time are described on this site at Environment / CFPA licence application.

No decision about the application has been announced, and the process seems to be completely secretive, with no mention of the application on either the CFPA or the MCA website.

There have been several recent developments in the campaign, one of which requires your support.  Cromartyrising has engaged the services of London legal firm Bindmans, who have written to Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Transport, outlining the legal arguments against the application; and  Cromarty District Council  has sent a letter to the Port Authority asking them to withdraw it.  'North Star' article  20 September 2016.

The services of a London legal firm do not come cheap, and Cromartyrising has set up a crowdfunding site to raise the £30,000 they expect to need to meet the costs.  If you are concerned about the threat to the Moray Firth dolphins, please contribute as much as you can at

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/CromartyS2S

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In addition to the danger of an oil spill, there would be a constant hazard to the dolphins and other marine life from the discharge of ballast water, taken on elsewhere and possibly containing foreign and harmful substances and organisms, which is a normal part of the process of transferring oil between tankers at sea.  The  International Maritime Organisation has drawn up a convention on the treatment of ballast water, which has been ratified by all the countries bordering the North Sea with the exception of the UK.  More details about this can be found on the Environment / CFPA oil transfer page on this site.

The whole issue of this ill-conceived and dangerous proposal and licence application should be viewed in the light of the fact that dockside oil transfer and ballast water treatment facilities already exist at Nigg Jetty and continue to be available.