Malta’s spring hunting season 2008 is quietly elapsing with just nine days left before the date the season opened for business last year.

Moreover, considering the fact that there is a legal requirement of a four-week interval between the announcement of the season’s dates and the commencement of the season itself, the season appears to be quietly passing Malta’s hunters by.

The four-week requirement had been introduced before the spring hunting season opened last year, and was trimmed down by a fortnight from the previous six-week interlude.

Last year’s season had run from 10 April to 20 May, before it had been brought to an early close on 10 May following an alleged massacre of honey buzzards, a protected species. Last year’s 10 April opening was, in fact, a rather late starting date since the season is usually opened by the third week of March.

As such, it appears this year is to be the first in which spring hunting does not take place in Malta, but that is not to say illegal hunting would not be practiced.

Given the four-week requirement, even if a decision to open the season were announced tomorrow, the season would not be able to be opened until 2 May. Additionally, given the fact that migratory peaks for Malta’s two huntable species – turtledove and quail – usually occur in mid-April, hunters’ best pickings would have already passed them by.

But such a decision appears most unlikely, with the ECJ expected to decide on a request for an interim measure banning spring hunting this year in the very near future.

The ECJ will tomorrow hold an oral hearing, in which the final submissions from lawyers representing Malta and the Commission will be heard, after which the request from the EC for an interim measure banning spring hunting this year will be decided upon. A decision on the matter could be taken at the hearing itself or in the following days.

The Commission presented its case against Malta to the ECJ on 25 February, and also requested an urgent decision on the request for the interim measure, while Malta submitted its own case on 7 March.

In filing its argument before the ECJ, the European Commission, which contends Malta had illegally opened spring hunting in violation of the Birds Directive for four consecutive years since it joined the EU, the Commission had also requested the ECJ to take an interim measure against Malta so as to ban the opening of the spring season until the matter is decided in finality by the courts.

Tomorrow’s proceedings are expected to focus on the EC’s interim measure request, before the full case against Malta is to begin being heard. Such an interim measure is normally applied as a reactionary rather than a preventive measure.

The Ornis Committee, which is usually tasked with recommending the season’s opening and closing dates to the environment minister who then takes a final decision, this year chose not to provide a recommendation, on two separate occasions, in light of court proceedings now underway and effectively laid the onus of such a decision at the government’s feet.

The government, for its part, has said it would respect any decision handed down by the ECJ but has not publicly stated whether it intends opening the season or not – a delicate and thorny issue given the recently concluded electoral campaign, in which neither major political party went as far as to declare itself on the issue, but in which both said they would respect the ruling meted out by the ECJ.

It is not yet clear how Malta’s individual hunters and the Federation of Hunters, Trappers and Conservationists (FKNK) – Malta’s leading pro-hunting lobby – are to react to a no-go for spring hunting this year. The Federation, which has taken a hard-line stance in favour of the spring practice’s retention, recently called on President Eddie Fenech Adami to personally intervene on the spring hunting issue.

At two public meetings held at the beginning of the month FKNK secretary general Lino Farrugia declared that if the season is not opened as anticipated this spring, he would stop advising its members to abide by the law, explaining he had always been the first and most adamant that Maltese hunters should abide by the law of the land.

“I have always been the first to say ‘abide by the law’,” he said, “but if the law is changed in such a way that spring hunting is not allowed, I would no longer tell our members to abide by the law.”

Hunters choosing to take the law into their own hands, however, face a new set of penalties laid out before the season began last year, with fines for “aggravated offences” having been effectively doubled, while those practicing illegal hunting will also face prison sentences and will have their hunting and firearms licences suspended.

Aggravated offences include attempts to hunt, take or destroy bird nests; hunting at sea within three kilometres from the coast; hunting and trapping at bird sanctuaries; hunting of protected species; hunting during the closed season or with two hours before sunrise and after sunset, and hunting from beaches.

For first offences, all fines have been doubled to not less than EUR233 and not more than EUR,659 plus the suspension of hunting and firearms permits for between one and three years.

Penalties have become even stiffer for repeat offenders, who will be slapped with fines of between EUR466 and EUR 9,317 and a jail term of between two months and two years. The courts will also order the permanent revocation of the violator’s hunting and firearms licences. Those found hunting or trapping birds without a licence will suffer the same penalties as repeat offenders.

Those caught hunting after their licence has been revoked, meanwhile, will be fined a minimum of EUR6,988 and up to EUR13,976. Such individuals will also serve a prison term of at least one year but of not more than two.

In addition to the present regulations that do not allow shooting 50 metres from a main road and 200 metres from a residential area, another amendment will provide for a shooting ban within 50 metres of beaches, which have been defined as Paradise Bay, Armier Bay, Anchor Bay, Golden Bay, Ghajn Tuffieha, Gnejna in Malta; and Ramla l-Hamra, San Blas, ix-Xatt l-Ahmar, Imgarr ix-Xini and Xlendi Bay in Gozo.