David Lindsay

Following the government’s new set of hefty fines and penalties for violations of hunting regulations that have just been published, all eyes this weekend are on the Malta-Gozo channel as the south-north duck migration kicks into full swing.

With the hunters’ lobby having demanded that the opening of hunting at sea of ducks and other waterfowl become effective yesterday, and with the government having not yet reached a public decision on the matter, the Administrative Law Enforcement Unit and birdwatchers, as well as BirdLife Malta (BLM), are keeping a keen eye on the channel to spot any infringements of regulations against hunting at sea.

The Malta-Gozo channel is a main thoroughfare for migratory ducks, which migrate and pass through the channel in their thousands between the first and second moons of March. These include significant numbers of the red-listed, endangered Ferruginous Duck, which pass through a few key areas of Malta and Gozo.

The highest concentrations of ducks, however, funnel through the Malta-Gozo channel as they migrate north for the winter. Birdwatchers on Friday evening, in fact, observed at least 250 ducks flying through the channel. Several thousands were also spotted last year.

During last year’s local council elections, BLM president Joseph Mangion observed yesterday, a “massacre” of migrating ducks had taken place while police officers were busy on election-related duties.

A similar risk presents itself this year, with local council elections again falling smack in the middle of the duck migratory season.

The publishing of the government’s new set of fines and penalties on Friday – the eve of March’s first full moon – appears to have been timed perfectly, but the hunters’ lobby appears intent on hunting ducks at sea this month.

At a press conference held this week, as well as in their submissions to the Ornis Committee, the Federazzjoni Kaccaturi Nassaba Konservazzjonisti (FKNK) has demanded that the hunting at sea of ducks and other waterfowl be permitted between the first and second moons of March this year.

The FKNK is to protest in front of Parliament on Wednesday to demand the March duck hunt, as well as to call for a longer spring hunting season than that proposed to the ministry by the Ornis Committee on Monday.

Among the demands being made by the Federation is that the trapping season for the seven identified species of songbirds opens in March, while it is also demanding that the open spring season on turtledoves and quail be increased to two months, starting on 20 March.

On Monday, the Ornis Committee recommended that the season on quail runs from 1 April to 10 May, and that the season for turtledoves opens on 10 April and closes on 20 May. These dates, however, are not set in stone until they are published in a legal notice. However, neither the committee nor the ministry have made any mention of the dates for trapping or whether it will allow hunting at sea, and the FKNK’s demands for hunting during the duck migration have still not been publicly addressed.

The FKNK has also recoiled at the stiff penalties introduced by the government on Friday, which it has deemed to be “unacceptable”.

Speaking this week, FKNK president Joe Buttigieg said the federation would not accept the new fines and penalties as announced by Mr Pullicino on Monday, commenting that “exaggerated” measures such as Lm6,000 fines, mandatory prison sentences and the permanent revocation of hunting and firearms licences are wholly unjust when such penalties and fines are not even contemplated for more serious criminal offences.

“It is not right that hunters and trappers are treated like criminals in this democratic country,” he said.

According to the new schedules of fines, however, the stiffer penalties, including prison sentences, are applicable only to repeat offenders. The fines for first time offenders have been doubled and the suspension of hunting and firearms licences is only called for in the case of first time regulation violators.

On the second conviction, fines rise to between Lm200 and Lm4,000, plus a prison sentence of between two months and two years, as well as the permanent revocation of the licences.

Those caught hunting after their licences have been revoked, meanwhile, would face fines of between Lm3,000 and Lm6,000 and a prison sentence of between one and two years.

The government has very clearly become stuck between a rock and a hard place by having failed to take a clear stand in terms of spring hunting. In trying to reach what it perceives as a compromise between environmentalists and hunters, it has only succeeded in alienating both groups.

Instead of throwing its weight in either one direction or another, it has tried to perform a delicate balancing act, and appears to have failed miserably in the process in that it has only managed to irk both sides of the equation.

On the one hand it has attempted to placate hunters by keeping the spring hunting season open in the face of stiff opposition from the European Commission and local and international environmental lobbies. But in a bid to placate such opposing interests, it has shortened the spring hunting season while also introducing a host of hefty fines for hunters found violating the regulations.

Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino himself declared at a press conference on Monday, following the controversial Ornis Committee meeting, that while he personally did not necessarily agree with the practice of hunting, the decision to retain the spring hunting season had been taken in fulfilment of the government’s political mandate, which the population had approved in both the EU referendum and the last general election.

The Malta Labour Party, Alternattiva Demokratika and environmental lobbyists have labelled the ploy for what it essentially is – a delaying tactic aimed at placating both sides until after the forthcoming general election.

And the hunters lobby cannot be as naïve as to actually believe that, come spring 2008, by which time the EU’s bureaucratic machinery would still not have got around to fining Malta for what it considers to have been a violation of the Birds Directive for what will be a fifth year running, the government will not outlaw hunting in spring.

The real problem with spring hunting is not the fact that hunters are allowed to shoot two species – turtledove and quail – neither of which are protected or endangered, but rather the fact that once spring hunting is open, protected species are inevitably shot during their breeding season.

As such, the real problem lies in enforcement, which is now to be placed under the wing of the Office of the Prime Minister, which is to coordinate enforcement activities between the police and the army.

One of the most worrying factors in the whole business, however, is that the independent, consultative capacity of the Ornis Committee appears to have been removed in favour of it becoming a government rubber-stamp committee. The most poignant case in point was the setting of the agenda for Monday’s controversial meeting, from which BLM representatives walked out in protest.

As highlighted last Sunday, the agenda circulated by new chairman Louis Cilia, to the consternation of BLM, had not included a discussion on whether spring hunting would be recommended for this year, but rather only a discussion on the dates and conditions under which it would be allowed.

What is a mystery, however, is the question of who was ultimately responsible for drafting the agenda. While BLM contends that the agenda was set by the new chairman after having held discussions with the minister, government officials speaking to this newspaper this week were not able to confirm who exactly had ordered the agenda as it was delivered to the Ornis Committee members.

At any rate, Malta can expect the issue to remain at the top of the national agenda this week, with the hunters’ protest taking place on Wednesday and with a government announcement on the dates for spring hunting and trapping, as well as a decision on hunting at sea, also pending. Considering that announcements are still awaited on such crucial issues, the government has still left itself plenty of room for manoeuvre.