The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) has urged the government to stop the trapping of golden plovers as widespread illegal night trapping made a mockery of the real time monitoring and quota system introduced to ensure that only a limited number of birds was caught.
"Since the season started we have conducted night surveys which proved that the majority of trapping sites registered for plovers are manned and active during the night when the plovers migrate and enforcement is at zero," press officer Axel Hirschfeld said.
"As trapping is illegal two hours after sunset and two hours before sunrise birds trapped during these illegal periods will not be reported by the trappers making it impossible for the government to say when the quota is reached," he added.
Trappers are obliged to report every bird caught by SMS, so that the season's quota is monitored in real-time and terminated if the overall seasonal quota for golden plovers is reached before the end of the season.
CABS also criticised the widespread use of "hundreds" of forbidden bird callers for the trapping of golden plovers.
"There are only a few places on Malta and Gozo where these devices cannot be heard calling night and day. Everybody knows that they are illegal and everybody hears them, however it is easy for them to be switched off when the police are nearby making them impossible to locate", Mr Hirschfeld said.
CABS said it received numerous phone calls from the public who felt disturbed as some of the machines could be heard even inside houses in Bugibba, Rabat, Mellieha, Siggiewi, Birzebugga and Manikata.
It said that although there should be at least two ALE officers/marshals on duty to monitor the situation outside the permitted hours, the police control room was unable to forward calls to the ALE.
“Police headquarters repeatedly informed us that there were no ALE officers on duty at night," CABS wildlife crime officer Fiona Burrows said.
She said the CABS teams were finally forwarded to the district police who dismantled one illegal bird caller used for night trapping inside the Majjistral nature and history park and in one case managed to catch a trapper red handed close to San Martin.
"In the overwhelming majority of cases the bird trappers switched of their callers and ran off in the dark when they saw the police car arriving. If the government is not able to bring the situation under control - as it is the case at the moment - the season must be terminated with immediate effect," Ms Burrows added.