Oil pollution threatens famous Shetland sheep

Press, 25 January 1979, Page 23

Oil pollution threatens famous Shetland sheep

N'ZPA staff correspondent London The future of Scotland’s famous Shetland wool industry is endangered by the threat to the sheep from the rapidly developing oil industry. Ever-decreasing numbers of island women work in the largely cottage industry.

Oil pollution is threatening the Shetland sheep, one of the oldest breeds in the world and one of only two breeds that survive the harsh Scottish winters on a diet of seaweed.

The most recent disaster, when the super-tanker Esso Bernicia struck a jetty at Sullom Voel three weeks ago, resulted in the deaths of 1000 sheep. Some sheep were trapped in the oily slime and drowned by the incoming tide as they grazed on the shore, and others were affected by eating contaminated seaweed. The fleeces of some of the sheep that survived were seriously damaged by the oil.

Shetland sheep have been in existence for more than 2000 years. About 150,000 are distributed over the 19 inhabited islands and more than 80 smaller islands of the group.

Fleeces range from white to black, grey, brown and shades of red, enabling the islanders to make a range of multicoloured patterned knitwear. including the famous Fair Isle sweaters, without dying the wool.

Most of the knitwear, which is sold throughout the world, is still made in scores of tiny farms throughout the Shetland Islands. The industry is worth nearly S2M a year in revenue. But ninetenths of the women who made the knitwear in the past have abandoned their craft to take higher-paid temporary jobs in the oil industry. The drop in knitwear being made over recent years is now a matter of serious concern. The managing director of

Shetland Fashions, Mr lain Caldwell, told the “Sunday Telegraph” he saw the present state of the industry as disastrous. “The whole thing has taken everybody by surprise. Everybody was concerned about the effect of oil pollution on wildlife and the environment but everybody forgot the Shetland sheep,” he said.

“Even if we were to take the sheep away from the seashore in the winter and feed them on other things, that would make wool production too expensive on these islands anyway, and the industry would die.

“Things are changing so fast here because of the oil industry that we have not had time to realise the full consequences.”