BirdLife Malta and CABS, the German based Committee Against Bird Slaughter - said today that initial results from their respective conservation camps showed that the opening of the spring hunting season resulted in a dramatic increase in the illegal shooting of protected birds.

They said they recorded nearly 950 shots outside hunting hours, 61 protected birds being shot at, and 52 protected birds with gunshot injuries in flight.

During the hunting season alone BirdLife Malta received 22 shot protected birds.

More protected birds were seen shot at, and more shot protected birds were received by BirdLife Malta, than during the same periods of the past three years combined, when the hunting season was either closed or boycotted.

The organisations also recorded other illegalities such as the use of cage traps, shotguns capable of firing more than three rounds, and hunters not wearing the obligatory armband. BirdLife Malta recorded illegalities in 89% of locations visited.

MEPA recently announced only 1,842 Turtle Dove and 366 Quail were reported killed by around 5,600 hunters during this spring's 15 day season.The hunting lobby blamed this low catch on a poor migration. BirdLife Malta and CABS said, however, that they recorded a good migration.

BirdLife Malta Executive Director Paul Debono said it was clear that self regulation by hunters has failed as shown by the low figures recorded by MEPA. The SMS system for recording the number of birds that were shot had also failed.

"How is the Commission to take these figures seriously?"

BirdLife Malta's Spring Watch ran from the 10th to the 24th April while CABS operations ran from 22nd April to 2nd May. BirdLife Malta had a maximum of 6 teams while CABS had a maximum of 4 teams in the field at any time, therefore only a small part of Malta and Gozo were covered, the NGOs said.

The two organizations will be presenting the European Commission with a joint report on the illegalities observed during this open hunting season in the coming weeks.