Birdlife Malta chief executive Mark Sultana said yesterday that the decision to open this year’s spring hunting season was a purely political one and lacked any scientific basis.

“The decision to open a spring hunting season and the conditions linked to it have no scientific backing or valid justification. The government has made an incorrect political decision to press on with a spring hunting season this year,” Mr Sultana said.

He explained that during the last Ornis Committee meeting, the head of the Wild Birds Regulation Unit, Sergei Golovkin, could not present a scientific basis for opening this year’s spring season. Mr Sultana said that the European Commission’s request for the government to provide a justification for this year’s spring hunting season sent a clear message that such a practice was not sustainable.

While the European turtle dove population has declined by 30 per cent in the last 15 years, Malta was the only EU member to allow this species to be hunted in spring.

Reacting to the Facebook comments made on Friday by CABS, the Munich-based bird observation society, that the situation in Malta has improved, Mr Sultana said the comments were rather “premature” and attributed the improvements to less bird migration over Malta, as well as enforcement having been stepped up.

“As soon as enforcement eases, we will once again note an increase in abuse,” he said, adding that Birdlife feared, given Malta’s enforcement limitations, “a risky game is being played”. He called on the Prime Minister to end the spring hunting season, which this year runs until Saturday.