LAST THURSDAY, at Arbroath Sheriff Court, the Conservation of Seals Act 1970 (CSA) yet again proved incapable of protecting seals.

David Pullar, of Usan Salmon Fisheries, has nets at the River Esk estuary. On July 20, 2005, his brother George shot a common seal in the area. This was during the breeding season for common seals and George did not have a government licence to kill seals during this period. He was charged under the CSA.

Eyewitness Jacqueline Watt, whom the sheriff described as "very credible", told how she saw the seal being shot as it basked on the sand. It was not near any nets and was not eating any salmon.

However, under clause 9.1(c) of the CSA, fishermen can, without a licence, shoot seals at anytime of the year if the seals are "in the vicinity" of a net.

Vicinity is not defined in the act and the seal does not have to damage nets. Sheriff Johnston told George Pullar there was no case to answer and passed a not proven verdict.

There has been only one successful prosecution under the CSA. I brought that against a Skye salmon farmer in 1989. He admitted blasting seals with a shotgun and was fined £200 for this technicality. Had he used a rifle he would have walked free from court.

Nobody knows how many seals are slaughtered in Scotland. I have estimated in the past that at least 3500 are legally shot every year. Nobody challenges that figure, probably because it is very conservative.

One salmon netsman admitted shooting 90 seals in one season and a fish-farm worker told me he killed 60 at just one cage. Anglers killed 24 seals on the Helmsdale coast in Sutherland in just a few days and locals told me hundreds were killed every year at nearby nets.

Seals are killed because they eat fish, but there is no evidence they damage commercial fisheries. Indeed, seals eat eels and other fish which are predators of salmon eggs and parr, and are part of an ecosystem which survived for thousands of years before industrial trawling and illegal black fishing decimated fish stocks.

MSPs need to pass new laws protecting seals instead of giving immunity from prosecution to those who shoot them.

Until that happens, consumers should realise that when they buy Scottish salmon they literally pay for bullets to shoot seals. It is not a price worth paying.