Updated 7.45 p.m.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) said this evening that it is still compiling the daily breakdown of Carnet de Chasse figures for last autumn and they will be released on its website as soon as this information is available.
It said, however, that the total bag of autumn 2011 hunting between 1st September 2011 to 31st January 2011) was 4,302 turtle doves and 6,281 quails.
The report is available at: http://www.mepa.org.mt/file.aspx?f=7943
MEPA was replying to a statement issued in the afternoon by BirdLife which reacted angrily to the government's decision to open a spring hunting season. It said the decision was clear evidence of the government’s strategy of slowly extending the spring hunting periods from one year to the next.
It said that following the European Court of Justice ruling in 2009, which condemned Malta for its past spring hunting and trapping derogations, the government claimed that only a ‘limited’ hunting season could be applied. It opened a six half day season in 2010. Since then the season has been extended to 16 days.
Furthermore, this year hunters would be allowed to shoot 2,000 more Turtle Doves and twice as many quail than in 2011.
"The government states that the quotas declared for the spring hunting derogation are based on the declared numbers of these species shot during last year’s autumn hunting season, although these figures were never verified. In a scenario in which it was made very clear to the hunters that fewer birds declared in autumn would result in larger quotas in spring, over 10,000 hunters declared a total catch of just 4,274 Turtle Dove and 6,229 Quail last autumn. This is less than one per hunter over a five-month hunting period," BirdLife said.
It said that its request, made last month, for MEPA to provide a daily breakdown of Carnet De Chasse figures for last autumn remains unanswered.
BirdLifeinsisted that the declared catches of the last spring hunting season provided further evidence of misreporting by Maltese hunters.
"A total of 5,642 hunters declared they had shot a total of 2,208 birds during a 15-day season last year. Despite the fact that most of the declared catches were reported in the last few days of the spring hunting season and reported catches did not correlate with migration influxes, MEPA ignored this misreporting."
BirdLife asked what further evidence was required for the European Commission to take action.
"The opening of a spring hunting season in 2012 again disregards the fact that both turtle dove and quail populations are declining in Europe and that hunting during spring goes against the Commission’s own Hunting Guide," BirdLife said.
MEPA REACTION
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) in a reply said with regard to the daily breakdown of Carnet de Chasse figures for last autumn that the daily figures have not yet been compiled and will be released on its website as soon as this information is available.
In the meantime, MEPA has published the total bag for autumn 2011: between 1st September 2011 to 31st January 2011, a total of 4,302 turtle doves and 6,281 quails were caught. The report is available at: http://www.mepa.org.mt/file.aspx?f=7943 .