BirdLife Malta said it recorded more than 730 illegalities and received 14 shot protected birds during the spring hunting season that closed on Monday.

The organisation yesterday said its spring watch teams recorded the illegal hunting incidents between April 12 and 30.

This figure was based on an initial analysis of data gathered by BirdLife and excluded illegalities recorded by the Committee Against Bird Slaughter.

The irregularities recorded by BirdLife included targeting protected species, exceeding the season’s legal daily bag limit, hunting outside permitted hours, and hunting without wearing the yellow armbands – a legal requirement.

BirdLife also received 14 shot protected birds since the season opened, a significant increase when compared to the nine birds received during the same period in 2008 and 2009, when spring hunting was not permitted.

The organisation’s teams have also seen more than 40 protected birds in flight with injuries consistent with shotgun fire.

BirdLife Malta also criticised the “limited” supervision of thousands of hunters. While the government had said that 50 police officers would control hunting activities, BirdLife recorded an average of four police vehicles at any given time.

“Despite the best intentions of the under-resourced Administrative Law Enforcement unit, a derogation permitting thousands of people to hunt has not been strictly supervised. This year’s spring hunting derogation is yet another example of Malta deceiving the European Commission by exploiting the derogation loophole in the Birds Directive.”