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Publication - Statistics

Wildlife Crime in Scotland 2024

Published
27 February 2026
Directorate
Environment and Forestry Directorate
Topic
Environment and climate change, Farming and rural, Law and order, +1 more … Marine and fisheries

Statistics on wildlife crime in Scotland.

Supporting documents

Freshwater pearl mussels

Scotland supports several of the largest remaining populations of freshwater pearl mussels (FWPM) in the world some of which continue to be damaged by criminal activity. Pearl fishing continues in Scotland, almost uniquely within Europe. FWPM are also threatened by unlawful river engineering and pollution.

There were no freshwater pearl mussel offences recorded in 2023-24 or 2024-25.
Figure 19: freshwater pearl mussel offences recorded by Police Scotland, 2019-20 to 2024-25.

Bar chart showing number of freshwater pearl mussels offences recorded by Police Scotland, 2019-20 to 2024-25.

Further detail: see previous wildlife crime reports for details of offences for previous reporting years.

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