It would take more than strong words and brute manpower to effectively tackle serious hunting abuse, Birdlife Malta said yesterday.

Despite claimed increased enforcement, protected birds were still killed in large numbers throughout the last month and the tactics employed by enforcement officers were not effective enough in detecting these crimes and gathering evidence to bring the perpetrators to justice, Birdlife conservation manager Nicholas Barbara said.

Of the 95 officers “deployed” to police the hunting season between September 15 and October 7, a maximum of just 21 were recorded actually patrolling in the countryside in any one shift.

In Gozo, no patrols were operating on the island at all, with bird watchers reporting seeing police only when they were responding to incidents they reported.

In Malta, when enforcement officers were observed, they were uniformed and highly visible, Birdlife said.

“What is needed is a new, smart approach to catch hunters who continue to illegally shoot at protected birds. That requires specialist training, equipment and personnel dedicated to detecting and stopping wildlife crime, like the wildlife crime units of other European countries.

It’s not enough to just throw numbers at the problem or to leave it up to NGOs to detect and report crimes for the police to respond to.”

The Government reported the “disclosure” of only one incident of shooting at a protected bird between September 15 and October 7.

In the same period, Birdlife and CABS teams collectively “directly witnessed” a total of 111 protected birds being shot at or shot down.