Meeting of the Parliament 11 February 2026 [Draft]
I congratulate John Mason on securing the debate and delivering what I thought was an excellent speech, detailing just some of the species for which members are champions in the current session of Parliament. It reminded me of species champions from past sessions, because one of my predecessors representing the Highlands and Islands, Mary Scanlon, was the species champion for the freshwater pearl mussel; I know that she did a lot of work for that species and continues to take a great interest in it.
Like Mr Mason, I am not coming back to Parliament, but I will continue to take a strong interest in the species for which I am champion: the bottlenose dolphin. When I was appointed as champion, I found out that these dolphins are intelligent, inquisitive and playful, so I can only assume that 128 other MSPs were offered the bottlenose dolphin and refused, and it was left to the final MSP to take that one up.
I was delighted when I was asked to be species champion for the bottlenose dolphin, because it gave me an opportunity, which I readily accepted, to go to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation’s Scottish Dolphin Centre at Spey Bay. The centre does incredible work, encouraging people to understand more about bottlenose dolphins and their life—which is a long life; many of the females live for up to 50 years or more—in the Moray Firth.
As the species champion, I went on a shore watch. I knew, when I was being photographed by the local press, that an image of me at that time, when I was leader of the Scottish Conservatives, looking out to sea with binoculars, was going to be used by some to say, “Tory leader looks for votes.” I do not know for which species Russell Findlay is now the champion, but I advise him to be very careful of photo opportunities such as that. It was, understandably, reported in the way that I expected, but I was still keen to do it, because the shore watch project is great for getting people involved. You can go down there for 15 or 30 minutes, do a shore watch and then go back in and record the numbers.
Bottlenose dolphins also attract people to our area. The species generates about £4 million for the Moray economy and the wider economy along the Moray Firth, because people want to come and see dolphins and, if possible, go on one of the number of tours that go on in order to get up close—but not too close so as not to disturb their habitat.
A number of issues are concerning to those of us who are passionate about the species with regard to their habitat being disturbed. In three minutes, I do not have time to go over that. Nevertheless, being a species champion allows me to press those issues both in and outwith Parliament.
In my final seconds, I will say that I highly recommend the nature champions scheme to incoming MSPs, as it gives us a greater knowledge of a species with which we may otherwise not be familiar. It also gives us an opportunity to stand up in Parliament and take part in a debate that will, I think, be very consensual, because we all want to see the scheme continue to go from strength to strength. I will be looking at the next Parliament to see who gets not just the bottlenose dolphin, but many of the other species that have been mentioned tonight.