Birdlife Malta will be sending its own report to the European Commission’s Environment Directorate-General after it recorded a total of 148 illegal incidents showing the shooting at protected birds species migrating during the season, particularly the now-protected vulnerable Turtle Dove, along with 18 shot protected birds.
The report will seek to question whether the decision to allow hunting during the Turtle Dove’s peak migration period goes against the spirit of the European Birds Directive and any form of derogation from it.
Government authorities will also in the coming weeks submit a report to the European Commission, justifying the spring hunting derogation for Common Quail. The European Commission shall then judge the validity of this season.
“Following a moratorium of the spring hunting of the protected Turtle Dove declared in 2016, the Maltese Government this year deliberately opened a spring hunting season for Quail during the period when Turtle Doves migrate over the Maltese Islands. A spring hunting season for 6,900 hunters across Malta and Gozo opened between the 1st and 21st April 2018, against all scientific data and against the advice of BirdLife Malta and the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA),” a statement read.
Birdlife’s Spring Watch team, who used an average of two volunteer teams to patrol the countryside and monitor the hunting season around Malta and Gozo every single day, noted that “illegal hunting on Turtle Dove was rampant across Malta and Gozo and the season was indeed a smokescreen for hunters to target this vulnerable red-listed species” with “thousands shot over our islands, in particular during the last days of the season when shooting at this protected bird spiralled out of control.”
“All this represents just a small fraction of the illegal killing that has characterised this year’s spring hunting season.”
A summary of Birdlife’s findings are below:
- Various illegal electronic callers for Common Quail characterised the start of the season, with most of these callers operating unabated with little or no police enforcement.
- 30% of illegal killing incidents involved the shooting at protected species, the majority of which involved the killing of protected Turtle Doves.
- Other species that were observed being hunted illegally during the season include herons, Common Cuckoo, Short-eared Owl, European Roller, Common and Lesser Kestrel, Pallid, Montagu’s and Marsh Harriers.
- A total of 18 illegally shot protected birds were found by members of the public during the period, 14 of which were handed to BirdLife Malta, and another 4 were recovered by government authorities; marking “one of the worst spring hunting seasons in past years and definitely worse than last year.”
- Since the start of 2018, there have been 27 illegally shot protected birds, an increase on last year.