A study requested by Brussels to monitor bird migration during the spring hunting season missed its deadline because the planning authority asked for quotations two days after the season opened, The Times has learnt.
Official communication seen by this newspaper shows that Malta Environment and Planning Authority officials started asking for quotations from parties interested in conducting the study on April 15, two days after the official opening of the hunting season.
The deadline for submissions from interested parties was set for April 20, which means the study had not yet started even though the hunting season was two weeks old.
Mepa’s own terms of reference for the scientific study lay down that monitoring had to be carried out from the start of the spring hunting season on April 13 and continue for two weeks after it ends on April 30.
Environment Protection Directorate head Petra Bianchi admitted there were “some hitches” when asked about the matter yesterday. However, she stopped short of giving any details as to why the regulator did not commission the study in time before the hunting season got under way. “Work is in progress” was her terse reply.
Mepa had to commission an independent scientific study to gather ornithological data and establish the number of turtle doves and quails during the spring migratory period.
According to the study’s terms of reference, monitoring stations had to be set up in Malta, Gozo and Comino and had to operate daily throughout the spring hunting season.
Interested parties had to provide Mepa with a quotation for the cost, the methodology they would use and indicate the earliest day they were ready to start.
The government applied a derogation to open this year’s spring hunting season during which 9,000 turtle doves and 2,500 quails can be shot. Although the European Commission has said the framework legislation governing spring hunting was acceptable, Malta would still have to justify the derogation on a yearly basis.
The study on migration is one of the components the government would have to present to the Commission.