Ship to Ship oil transfers - Fancy sending a letter to Nicola? Cromarty Rising believe there are at least two things she could do.

Cromarty Rising have a proforma letter prepared that you can print off and sign and send to Nicola Sturgeon the First Minister of the Scottish Parliament. There are two things that they are urging her goverment to do.

The text of the letter is below and you can print off a copy from this Google document page here. 

Dear Ms. Sturgeon

Proposed Ship-to-Ship Oil transfers in the Moray Firth Special Area of Conservation

As the Leader of our Government, it is your responsibility to ensure Scotland’s beautiful land and seascapes are protected for future generations. Marine reports prepared by your Departments explicitly state that ship-to-ship transfers of crude oil could have serious detrimental effects on our onshore and marine environments.

Indeed, you stated in the Scottish Parliament (12/1/17):

“On the basis of the current information, the Scottish Government is unconvinced that ship-to-ship oil transfers can, or should, take place at anchor in the Cromarty Firth without unacceptable risk to the marine environment—in particular the European Union designated area for bottlenose dolphins.”

You also stated regarding concerned constituents:

“I assure them that the Scottish Government absolutely hears their concerns and will continue to do everything we can to make sure that they are heard by those who take the decisions.”

You allude to the Maritime & Coastguard Agency, who will determine any new application. But you do not have to allow a non-elected body in Southampton to take control. You and the Scottish Government can do at least two things to prevent such potentially devastating operations in our inshore waters:

You can use your powers to refuse to issue the required licence to disturb bottlenose dolphin and other European Protected Species http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0044/00446679.pdf

You can sit down and talk to the Cromarty Firth Port Authority, and persuade them to stop this. 

You don’t have to let others take this decision. Your Government has the power to make sure people are heard. You can decide to respect the will of more than 100,000 people who have registered their opposition to ship-to-ship crude oil transfers on the 38 Degrees Scotland site.

I respectfully urge you to use your powers to prevent ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Moray Firth.

Yours sincerely,