BirdLife Malta today questioned the ability of the government and the police to properly control and limit the spring hunting season in accordance with its derogation of the EU Birds Directive that allows spring hunting of turtles dove and quail.
It said that it had witnessed widespread illegal hunting in the first week of the season and the number of hunters and amount of shooting was not compatible with a strictly enforced spring hunting season.
BirdLife Malta Conservation Manager Nicholas Barbara said that volunteers monitoring migration as part of BirdLife Malta’s Spring Watch camp witnessed a “big push” of Turtle Doves migrating on Thursday morning.
“Our teams in the countryside recorded in excess of 9000 shots in the space of just a few hours in the morning at eight different locations around Malta,” said Mr Barbara.
Spring Watch camp participant, Marianne Leenders, who has been coming to Malta for Spring Watch and Raptor Camps since 2009, said that it was the worst morning she had ever experienced in all the camps she has volunteered at.
“It was like a warzone. There were hunters everywhere and the shots were coming so fast from every direction it was like we were surrounded by machine gun fire all morning. We saw many Turtle Doves flying and many being shot down. With so many hunters it is difficult to imagine how any could have survived.”
BirdLife said it doubted that the number of SMS reports sent to MEPA would accurately reflect the number of Turtle Doves shot, saying that evidence from previous seasons suggested that this would not be the case.
Mr Barbara added, “Under-reporting of kills has been a long-running issue. There is no way that the few police officers our teams have seen patrolling in the last week can monitor the number of hunters there are in the countryside as they are required to do by law, let alone check the amounts of birds that are being killed by each hunter.”
There were also concerns that police may not be correctly enforcing daily bag limits and seasonal quotas in accordance with the derogation conditions.
On Thursday morning a hunter was filmed shooting and collecting two Turtle Doves and then continuing to hunt, shooting at, but missing, at least two Quail. Police attending the scene spoke to the man, who admitted that he had killed two Turtle Doves and then continued hunting Quail, misinterpreting the law limting the daily bag of each hunter to two birds.
BirdLife said that on Thursday afternoon, Spring Watch participants at the Għadira Nature Reserve witnessed masked men hunting illegally inside the Foresta 2000 Bird Sanctuary, taking advantage of the 1pm ALE shift handover during which time hardly any police are present in the countryside.
Spring Watch volunteers were able to film and photograph events as they unfolded and have passed on video evidence identifying the individuals to the ALE.
“We understand the police are aware of the identity of the culprits and that investigations are ongoing,” said Nicholas Barbara.
In another case, BirdLife staff and volunteers filmed two men illegally trapping Turtle Doves in Wardija. Police attended the scene and apprehended two suspects. Nets, trapping equipment and at least 10 live Turtle Doves, which were being used as decoys, were confiscated from five active trapping sites in the area.