A controversial marine conservation group has sent a "defence team" to the Scottish coast to stop the slaughtering of seals.
Sea Shepherd UK is patrolling the north-east coastline this summer in a bid to cut down the number of animals killed by the salmon industry as fishermen try to protect their livelihoods.
Over 200 seals were shot last year under licence from Marine Scotland - as it is illegal to kill the animals without seeking permission.
But many animal welfare groups fear that the actual figure for the number of seals killed in Scottish waters could be much higher.
Sea Shepherd UK (SSUK), which has courted controversy in the past over some of its allegedly aggressive methods, has now launched land and sea patrols in the Gamrie Bay area of the Aberdeenshire coast.
SSUK, which was founded by activist Paul Watson who left Greenpeace in the late 1970s over a "disagreement" over tactics, hopes the watching eyes of volunteers will stop the use of deadly force being brought against the wild animals.
A spokesman for the group said: "Sea Shepherd UK have deployed a seal defence crew to Gamrie Bay, Banffshire, in the first phase of our 2015 campaign to prevent Scotland's iconic seals from being killed illegally by coastal netting fishing operations, fish farms or indeed anyone else in Scotland.
"The licenses issued by Marine Scotland which specify numbers of seals, locations and conditions under which seals can be shot remains open to abuse by some fishing/fish farm companies with a complete absence of any government monitoring."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article