If the evidence published by BirdLife Malta yesterday is not enough to push the authorities into serious action over this year’s spring hunting season, then we really do not know what would be enough.

A story on today’s front page reports hunters’ dismay with the limitations set for this spring’s hunting season, and we cannot deny that they feel very much aggrieved. But the article also carries a report from BirdLife Malta, which monitors the hunters’ website forum regularly and which provided evidence that at least one FKNK official has prompted hunters not to report every bird they shoot this spring.

A message on the forum from its administrator just after the announcement of the spring season and its bag limit, according to BirdLife, had read “be careful, because if everyone catches one bird and sends an SMS, the season will close the next day”.

There was no rebuttal from the FKNK yesterday.

Now on the face of it, it is just a little difficult to understand why the country’s main hunting federation has taken such exception to the even higher bag limits imposed by the parameters of this year’s spring hunting season.

After all, last year, at least according to figures on the text messages hunters are required to send in every time they bag a bird released by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, hunters apparently only managed to bag one-fifth of the bag limit.

And while last year’s bag limit of 11,500 birds – 9,500 turtledoves and 2,500 quail – was considerably less generous than that set for this year, hunters had only reported 2,208 successfully hunted birds.

The gaping discrepancy between last year’s reported catch and what had actually been set as the ceiling for those hunters holding special spring hunting licences last year could be explained, hypothetically, in a number of ways.

It could very well be that last year’s bounty was not as rich as usual due to ‘poor’ migration patterns, as had been cited. It could also be that hunters had problems, as had been claimed, with sending SMSs in from areas with poor cell phone reception. Perhaps the country’s hunters are becoming poorer shots by having been deprived of the virtual wild card for spring hunting they had enjoyed for decades.

Whatever the reason, last year’s apparent dearth of quarry was, in actual fact, far greater than implied by the bag limit itself when considering that the number of birds killed in an average spring amount to no less than 47,000 – 15,000 quail and 32,000 turtledoves.

As such, hunters last year apparently bagged only about one-fifth of their bag limit of 11,500 but that number concurrently represents around one-twentieth of what constitutes a ‘normal’ spring hunting season.

Now either the age-old Africa-Europe migratory patterns have been drastically disrupted or the species in question have drastically decreased in numbers. Such a pattern, if repeated this year, would be great cause for alarm for ornithologists and hunters themselves.

On the other hand, the only other plausible explanation is that hunters have not been entirely honest in their reporting – cause for alarm for the government in that it would have failed the ‘strict supervision’ clause that formed part of the derogation applied to open last year’s spring season since its credibility, in insisting on continuing to open the season, is well and truly on the line this year.

The government will not only have to prove to the European Commission that the derogation the country applied to open the spring season is justified, and in the process prove that it has properly enforced bag limits and prevented the yearly slaughter of protected species – it will also need to show that it has strictly supervised the season.

The government must, once and for all, cease to give quarter and apply a zero tolerance policy to all forms of illegal hunting. After all, its credibility is on the line in more serious terms than merely facing a slap on the wrist or punitive fines from the European Commission – illegal hunting is illegal and citizens simply cannot be allowed to run rampant and flout the law of the land with impunity.

The Prime Minister last year warned that enforcement will be key to the justification of Malta’s derogation, having stated “…if there is no cooperation, there can only be one outcome − no hunting in the spring”.

The government reinforced those comments this year when it opened the season, saying it demands nothing short of strict compliance, that infringements will not be tolerated and that it is the duty of each hunter to comply and ‘adhere vigorously’ to the law.

The fact of the matter is that no one will ‘adhere vigorously’ to a law that they do not agree with and which they feel is unjust, unless they are forced to do so. This year the government must send out a clear, forceful message and put an end to all hunting illegalities once and for all.

The authorities this spring must similarly ‘adhere vigorously’ to the government’s statement that infringements will not be tolerated.