WDCS doesn’t believe that enough is being done to monitor the environmental impact of a twice-yearly military operation off the coast of Scotland.

Exercise Joint Warrior takes place around the Clyde, the Western Isles and at Cape Wrath in Sutherland. It is the biggest training operation of its kind in Europe, involving 11 countries led by the UK.

It involves a range of training scenarios to test service personnel on strategic, operational and tactical issues simulating disputed territory and terrorist movements.

A spokesman for the Joint Warrior exercise said it was aware of the importance of the area to wildlife and the farming, fishing and tourist industries and took its responsibilities very seriously. He said environmental impact assessments are produced where required, such as for the use of active sonar and live weapons.

The WDCS accepts that the MoD does have some monitoring as to the effects of its operations on the surrounding wildlife, but given the level of funding available to the military organisation, they believe that the scope of their monitoring operations is nowhere near adequate.

Sarah Dolman, head of Scottish policy at the WDCS, said: “[The WDCS] believe the MoD should fund much more strategic research on a bigger scale. We have a lot of marine species here that are very important and yet they are not doing any research to find out whether there are any long-term impacts.”

The WDCS carries out land-based monitoring of the exercise. Last year it also used a vessel from the Mull-based Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT), but this year that has not been possible because of financial constraints.

Dolman said research on a population of minke whales that appear in the west coast in the summer showed that the number of animals fell during the exercise: “It would suggest the animals disappear when the exercise is occurring and, of course, we don’t know the long-term impacts.”

The fact that the exercise takes place in an area that is particularly significant for Scottish marine biodiversity is something that is of concern to the WDCS. Dolman explained that that her organisation will go on monitoring the situation, but she feels that the ultimate responsibility should be with the MoD.

“We are here because of Scotland’s incredibly diverse marine habitat. Also we are concerned about the potential impact of large navy exercises like Joint Warrior…what we want is for the MoD to carry out an environmental impact assessment of its activities and fund independent research.”