A proposal by the hunting federation to lift the moratorium on the shooting of turtle dove during the upcoming spring hunting season was today turned down by the Ornis Committee.

Last week, the committee agreed on opening a spring hunting season for quail, between 10 and 30 April. The FKNK had also proposed allowing the shooting of turtle dove between 15 and 30 April.

Birdlife Malta had said that the dates of a quail hunting season would coincide directly with the peak turtle dove migration, arguing that it could serve as a smokescreen for turtle dove.

The committee had decided to take some time to go over the FKNK proposal and a vote was taken today.  

While the FKNK voted in favour of its proposal, BirdLife Malta and the ERA representatives voted against, with the three Government appointees and the Chairman abstaining from voting.  FKNK's proposal was thus not carried, FKNK said in a statement.

“Whereas Malta is the only EU Member State, out of the ten countries where the turtle dove is hunted, which imposed a Moratorium on the spring hunting of the species, whilst the other nine States did not impose a moratorium on their autumn hunting seasons as had been proposed by the EU Commission; and since Malta is also the only State with a European Court of Justice verdict of 10 September 2009 (Case C-76/08) which stated that the autumn hunt in Malta is not a satisfactory alternative solution to the spring hunt; on the basis of its Report, the FKNK has also urged Government to immediately open discussions with the EU Commission for a long term solution to be reached on the matter,” FKNK said.  

A vote taken in this regard was carried when the FKNK, the Chairman and the three Government appointees voted for the motion.  This proposal will now be recommended to the Minister for implementation, FKNK said. 

In a Facebook post, Birdlife Malta encouraged the government and Prime Minister Jospeh Muscat to “be bold and take this signal either as a reason for spring hunting to be abolished altogether or, if a quail hunting season is still to be opened as recommended by Ornis last week, this should not extend further than mid-April to avoid the peak migration of Turtle Dove.”

If the dates proposed last week are accepted, the season would only serve as a smokescreen for hunters to illegally target this protected species, it said. 

In a statement, government said it evaluated the recommendations put forward by the Ornis Committee and announced that it will apply a derogation for the opening of hunting for quail from 10 April to 30 April (both dates included), from two hours before sunrise to noon, with a national quota of 5,000. Government said that the individual daily quota is being removed, as well as the individual seasonal quota.

As regards turtledove hunting, government said it noted that the Committee did not accept the FKNK's proposal, and said that this decision was taken as the population of turtledoves was classified as being in a state of vulnerable conservation by the IUCN.

As for the call for the government to iimmediately open discussions with the EU Commission for a long term solution to be reached on the derogation for the spring hunting of turtledoves, government said that these discussions will be intended to determine the principles on the derogation.