The great hunting debate was back on the radar, if in fact it ever left it, this week after the government announced the dates and conditions of this year’s autumn hunting season. The main bone of contention this time around was not spring hunting, the usual bête noir of the environmentalist camp, but, rather the autumn season and its hours.

This time around, the government has extended the afternoon hunting hours until 7pm, four hours longer than the previous 3pm curfew that had been in place for the last five years.

And while the hunters’ main lobby, the FKNK, has said that the curfew’s retention was evidence that the government had buckled to demands from ornithological lobbies, the move smacks more of an attempt to placate both sides of the hunting equation, and in the process satisfying neither. It seems that when it comes to the strongly opposing sides of the hunting equation, no one will be ever be pacified.

During negotiations on this autumn’s hunting season, according to the FKNK, hunters had argued for a complete lifting of the curfew, and ornithological groups had proposed retaining it and extending it into the first week of October.

Apparently seeking the middle ground, the government in the end retained the curfew and extended it into the first week of October – but it lengthened hunting hours until 7pm as a sort of compromise.

A government that seeks compromise is an extremely positive trait for any administration, but the facts are such that the curfew should have remained at 3pm.  And there is good reason for that.

Ornithologists correctly argue that birds of prey, all of which are protected species and which are apparently among the most coveted trophies for illegal hunters, come in to roost in the afternoon. In fact, they say, the majority of such raptors that are illegally hunted are killed in the afternoon hours. Most birds of prey, they point out, would have already roosted by 7pm after daring the crosshairs while descending onto Malta.

Moreover, they point out that the two legal species – turtledove and quail – tend to migrate at night and that as such the primary hunting hours for these two legally hunted species are in the hours just before dawn – and not in the afternoon. 

As such, they argue, the extension of the hunting hours until 7pm will make no difference to law-abiding hunters and is tantamount to completely removing the curfew altogether. The thing is that any shots heard during the curfew hours are, by definition, illegal shots and the culprits can be more easily traced. Shots heard during regular hunting hours, however, are far more difficult to pinpoint as being incidents of illegal hunting or not.

The government this week said that a Wild Birds Regulation Unit is to monitor the season closely and coordinate with the home affairs ministry, the police the AFM and Mepa to, as it says, “to deter and eradicate abuse”.

The government also had harsh words for those who intend breaking hunting laws once the season opens on 15 September. The government said this week that it will “demand nothing short of strict compliance with the hunting regulations...and it will ensure that these are adhered to”.

But the problem is that it is not starting off on the right foot by allowing hunting until the time that endangered birds of prey have already roosted, as opposed to the previous curfew that banned hunting during the pre-roosting time of day.

The easing of the ban will also be effective precisely at the time of year – between mid-September and early October – that the migration period for birds of prey is at its peak. 

This autumn season will be yet another test for the government, which will have to ensure that no illegal hunting takes place over the whole of the season but, given the extension of hunting hours it will need to heavily monitor hunting activities between 3 and 7pm. Irrespective of the fact that it seems to have made matters more difficult for itself with the extension of afternoon hunting hours, it is hoped, for the country and for the sake of its law-abiding hunters, that it will have every success in stemming the rampant illegalities that mark each and every hunting season.