Three years without spring hunting may have spared the birds but hunting shops and some traditions could be facing near extinction.
“I’d say sales dropped by 70 per cent since Malta joined the EU ,” Noel Attard, owner of a popular hunting shop in Żebbuġ, said.
The spring hunting season opened this year for the first time in three years following continuous haggling between the EU, the government and the hunting lobby and environmentalists over the application of a derogation.
“Nowadays, you don’t sell a new shotgun. People are not prepared to spend €1,200 on a new shotgun when they’re not going to use it. It’s like buying a new car knowing it will spend six months inside the garage,” Mr Attard said.
Once a cartridge manufacturer with plans to export to the UK, Mr Attard has closed down his small factory and now only runs his shop.
The spring hunting ban even affected clay pigeon shooting because nowadays there are few, if any, young newcomers to the sport.
“The spring season is fundamental. It is at the root of everything. Traditionally, a young man would go with a friend to the field and perhaps shoot at a tin can,” he explained. “They would then start going hunting in the morning, thinking they’d be shooting at a lot of birds but soon they’d realise all that effort for six turtle doves is not worth their while, so they’ll start moving towards sports shooting and improve their skills. Nowadays, this has been lost,” Mr Attard said.
Mario Salnitro, who owns a San Ġwann shop, said businesses centred on hunting and fishing like his had seen a drop of 50 to 60 per cent in revenue. “People buy more equipment for the April season: boots, trousers, penknives, torches, and the reason is that the autumn migration is very poor. September and October are so hot there’s very little migration.”
Also, the cartridges sold for the winter season are different from those used in spring.
He welcomed the limited spring season but said it could only help so much. With only four turtle doves “you have about 30 shots... if you’re a bad shot”.
“We’ve been promised a lot from the government. Hopefully, hunters will obey the law so that things improve in the future. It’s in our hands.”
A handful of cottage industries have also suffered.
A Birkirkara gun dealer said he lost 50 per cent of sales because spring hunting had been suspended in the past years. “Before, we used to get these handmade leather cartridge belts and cane calling reeds, which were made by people in their spare time. All this risks being lost and it is money lost to the economy,” he said.