Birdlife Malta has floated the idea of holding a second spring hunting referendum, less than a year after voters narrowly agreed to retain the controversial practice.

Addressing a press conference outside Castille, Birdlife Malta CEO Mark Sultana said the NGO was not ruling out starting the process for another referendum if the government failed to take action to protect birds.

Mr Sultana said new scientific evidence showed turtle doves were now a vulnerable species. Turtle doves passing over Malta in spring are on the last leg of a long flight towards their breeding grounds.

Turtle dove numbers in Europe had decreased by 30 per cent in just 15 years, he said. Such a significant reduction clearly showed that the spring hunting season was not sustainable.

If the government were really concerned with conservation, this year’s spring hunting season would not have been opened, Mr Sultana argued. He said spring hunting would come to an end eventually, either as a result of a referendum, the European Commission taking action or turtle doves becoming extinct.

The only other option was if the government stepped in of its own accord to halt the practice. Malta, he added, was the only European country that permitted such a spring hunt.

Start being a European politician. Protect the doves

Apart from being unsustainable, the spring hunting season would be largely uncontrolled, just as it had been in previous years, Mr Sultana said.

“This has been shown year after year by a failed game-reporting system that totally relies on the hunters’ catch declarations. As was the case in previous years, hunters have an interest in under- declaring the actual number of birds killed in order to prevent the season from closing early.”

The season will open from April 17 to 30, and the quota for turtle doves has been reduced from the maximum 11,000 to 5,000. Hunting hours are being reduced to between two hours before sunrise until noon on all days, a reduction of two hours each weekday.

Birdlife president Darryl Grima urged European Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella to stop being a Maltese politician and start being a European one by taking action to protect the species.

Mr Grima claimed the wild birds regulation unit was being used to reduce bird protection rather than to increase regulations.

A government statement denied ignoring scientific data about the vulnerability of turtle doves.