The move comes as two headless seals – one heavily pregnant, the other a juvenile – were discovered last weekend on a beach on Skye, The Independent on Sunday reported.

Marine Harvest is said to have admitted it shot two seals last week. The company said it did not know how or why the seals were decapitated.

The new rules will prevent fish farmers from shooting seals to protect their stocks for the first time during the closed season, according to a confidential draft of new legal guidelines.

Common and grey seals are supposed to be protected during their respective breeding seasons under the 1970 Conservation of Seals Act. However, the so-called "netsman's defence" – which permits fishermen to kill seals that threaten to damage their equipment – has been used by fish farms.

But draft guidelines to be published by the Scottish government next month will make clear for the first time that the defence does not apply to fish farms, the report states. The Act has been criticised by conservationists and the police for effectively permitting the shooting of seals by anyone with a reason to do so all year.

Campaigners believe up to 5,000 seals are shot by fish industries in Scotland each year.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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