Seas the moment

Eco charity urges action after Ministers fail to meet legal targets to protect ocean wildlife

- DAN VEVERS

WHALES, seabirds and seabeds have been put at risk by Ministers failing to keep promises to protect our seas, campaigners have warned.

Eco charity Open Seas issued the damning comments after the SNP government's own figures showed nearly three-quarters of Scotland's special marine conservation zones are failing to meet their objectives.

Open Seas blasted the failings as "political neglect" while the health of the seas declines.

It highlighted how 95 per cent of the nation's inshore waters are not protected from industrial scallop-dredging which lays waste to the seabed the most destructive type of fishing activity in Europe.

It comes despite Scotland's highest civil court ruling earlier this year that the government's approach to licensing this type of fishery was unlawful.

A network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) was established around the Scottish coastline in 2014.