Updated 9pm with FKNK reaction
The European Commission has formally requested the Maltese government to provide full justification of this year’s spring hunting season, BirdLife Malta revealed this morning.
"This request sends a clear message that the European Commission is doubting the sustainability of this year’s spring hunting season in Malta," BLM chief executive Mark Sultana told a news conference.
The government's decision to open this year's spring hunting season was purely political and lacks any scientific basis, he said.
While the European turtle dove has declined by 30 per cent over the last 15 years, Malta remains the only member state to allow its killing in spring in all of Europe
BirdLife said this continues to show how the Ornis Committee, which has a natural majority representing government, is a wasted committee lacking scientific reasoning, where BirdLife Malta’s vote is always at a minority.
BirdLife Malta reminded that while the European turtle dove has declined by 30 per cent over the last 15 years, Malta remains the only member state to allow its killing in spring in all of Europe.
It is for this reason, that BirdLife Malta once again requests Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to halt the spring hunting season.
It said that during the last Ornis Committee meeting, Head of Wild Birds Regulation Unit Sergei Golovkin could not present the scientific reasoning for opening this year’s spring hunting season. On the other hand, the WBRU head explained how the government had held meetings with the hunters' representatives.
"BirdLife Malta demanded that the government should not tolerate any abuse or illegal killing of protected species. Since the start of the season, cases of illegal hunting have already been reported. If government had to apply the same tolerance measures as those of last year, the spring hunting season should have already been closed."
The controversial spring hunting season runs until April 30.
Reacting to the Facebook comments made yesterday by CABS, the Munich-based bird observation society, that the bird hunting situation in Malta has improved, Mr Sultana said the comments were rather “premature”, attributing the improvements to the lower number of birds migrating over Malta.
“We want to get to the point where we can say we have noted improvements, but at this stage, any improvements were merely a result of less birds migrating over Malta,” he said.
Birdlife misleading the public - WBRU
Birdlife Malta is attempting to mislead the public on spring hunting, the Wild Birds Regulation Unit said later today.
The organisation's statements omitted the fact that Birdlife's representatives on the Ornis Committee voted in support of the motion that recommends to the government that, in view of the recent reclassification of the turtle dove as a 'vulnerable' IUCN Red List species and a 'near-threatened' species at EU27 level, the government should apply special measures to further reduce the impact of spring hunting on the population of that species.
The government has reduced the length of the spring season from three weeks to two weeks, reduced hunting hours from 2pm to noon on weekdays
This recommendation was adopted unanimously at the Ornis sitting on February 26.
Subsequent to the Ornis recommendation, the government has reduced the length of the spring season from three weeks to two weeks, reduced hunting hours from 2pm to noon on weekdays, reduced the national quota of turtle dove from 11,000 birds to 5,000, shortened the length of the autumn season for turtle dove from five months to one month only, and imposed a national quota of 7,000 birds in the autumn.
Technical and scientific reports presented to Ornis in the course of its deliberations, as well as the approved minutes of Ornis meetings where the issue was discussed were enclosed to the press as well as statistics pertaining to enforcement during past spring hunting seasons.
'Persistently negative'
In a statement, the Kaccaturi San Ubertu accused BLM of persistent negativity as part of its anti-hunting strategy.
The organisation denied Birdlife's claims and consider them to be part of their ongoing ploy to influence the public and European Commission’s perception of Maltese hunting.
The KSU said the exemplary behaviour of hunters has been praised by CABS and independent ornithologist Natalino Fenech.
"The meting out of harsh penalties by the judiciary coupled with a firm resolve to eradicate abuse by the enforcement authorities and hunting organizations has attained the desired results. Protected birds have been migrating in significant numbers this season as can be attested by the general public and the number of records, photos and videos posted by hunters and ornithologists on social media."
On the other hand, while deploring any single illegal act that can be used to tarnish legal hunting, the Federation for Hunting & Conservation applauded the law-abiding hunters for their complete respect of regulations and warned them not to give in to any provocation.
Moreover, the FKNK, also through its ‘marshals’, will continue to do its utmost to assist the Administrative Law Enforcement Unit of the Police in any manner it can, in the best interest of nature and of legal hunting.