Going gaga for guga
The guga hunt is a Hebridean tradition where, annually, ten men of Ness on the Isle of Lewis travel north by sea to the uninhabited island and gannetry of Sùla Sgeir to harvest 2000 gannet chicks, known as guga.
The ‘catch’ of guga is distributed as food among islanders with some sold on for consumption elsewhere, but although traditional, artisanal and sustainable, it remains controversial with animal rights groups firmly opposed to it (and I suspect the recently contrived annual guga-eating world championship will inflame rather than temper opposition to the hunt).
In his book The Old Ways: a journey on foot, the travel writer Robert Macfarlane presents a sympathetic (albeit sanitised) picture of the hunt, but, in the quote that made me laugh, is warned off eating guga due to its oily, chewy and acrid taste or, as an islander told him:
I gave a piece to the dog and it spent all week licking its arse to take away the taste.
Postscript: There is a highly rated gourmet sandwich bar in Edinburgh called the Gannet and Guga that uses only free range chicken and outdoor-reared pork and beef; no mention of guga (free-range or otherwise)!
