Hunting: The view from Spain

A few years ago my sister-in-law went to Malta for her holidays. She was not aware of the hunting scenario there plus the poor respect for nature protection and the general image that this projects across Europe and beyond. Now that she knows she's never going to repeat the trip. Neither will I or my family. And it's a pity but I'm tired of hearing of Malta's lack of nature conservation, the last case being the Ta' Cenc area's lack of protection.

I work in seabirds protection in Catalonia, NE Spain, so I'm concerned with safeguarding that place. Besides, I manage a small but internationally important wetland close to Barcelona airport which receives an increasing number of foreign tourists and local visitors. Spain, like Malta, is a Mediterranean country where hunting is widespread (but in our case I have to say in decline) and where environmental protection and respect for nature have grown fast in the last 20 years. I remember having heard and experienced dark stories in the early 1980s about hunters shooting everything. I myself was shot at in those years!

But if I'm right we're now in the 21st century and as long as cannibalism or inquisition practices are no longer in use, the unlimited hunt for anything that flies should no longer be in application in Europe. Your birds in Malta (if there are any left) are our migrant birds too. Your shearwaters are ours. And that is proven through satellite-tracking techniques. So please, leave them alone or at least apply severe and strict rules as elsewhere. And protect valuable areas such as Ta' Cenc.

Don't worry, there are many other nice sites in the Mediterranean, such as Spanish islands for example, where tourists increasingly go to enjoy their natural parks and reserves where birdlife is (still) rich and plentiful. In the meantime, as we say here, you're throwing rocks at your own ceiling. Hotel owners in the Balearics are certainly very happy with your policy. We biologists are not.