The government is once again walking the tightrope between placating the hunting and trapping lobbies and pacifying Brussels, which has been taking consistent aim at Malta’s hunting and trapping seasons alike.

The always hotly-disputed trapping season has now opened for business, and while it is appreciated that Malta has applied a derogation for the trapping of just two species this year – the song thrush and the golden plover - the problem here is that, just as the rabbit hunting season provides cover for the illegal hunting of protected birds, the trapping of these two species similarly provides ample cover to capture protected birds as well.

And in addition to the cover the opening of the season provides for illegalities, for this season, a total of 1,587 applicants have been granted a licence to trap wild birds across a whopping 1,895 trapping sites across Malta and Gozo.

And in the meantime, this is being done in the face of opposition from Brussels, with the European Court of Justice back in 2018 having found Malta guilty of infringing the European Birds Directive when it allowed finch trapping between 2014 and 2017.

That verdict should have also served as a reminder that the trapping season for plovers and thrushes must also face its day of reckoning since the methods applied to finches are the same as those applied to thrushes and plovers.

In fact, infringement proceedings for plover and thrush trapping had been kicked off by the European Commission back in 2011, and Malta has already received two warnings about the way in which past trapping seasons had been opened and over how they had not been adequately enforced.

The opening of this year’s season may prompt the European Commission to once again haul the government before the ECJ, with further action having been put on the backburner, possibly to wait and see what Malta will decide to do this year.

There were a couple of positives that may help placate Brussels: nets of a mesh size not smaller than 45mm by 45mm were previously allowed for trapping sites, this year trapping for song thrush can be carried using a net with a minimum mesh size of 35mm by 35mm.

Trappers will also be obliged to distinguish birds trapped this season by fitting them with single-use rings provided by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit.

But the fact of the matter is that national quotas have been set at 5,000 for song thrushes and 700 golden plovers, and no individual bag limits are being imposed.

So, as usual, this season will provide pretty slim pickings for Malta’s trappers given the bag limits being imposed.  There are just over 1,500 registered trappers who will all be vying for a quarry of just 5,700.

Simple arithmetic puts the legitimate quarry at under four birds per trapper for the whole of the season.  One would be hard-pressed to imagine that the effort would hardly be worth anyone’s while, but, of course, how their time is the trappers’ prerogative.

As such, the fundamental problem is that the situation also gives plenty of leeway to plenty of abuse.

And that brings us to the fundamental yet trickiest part: enforcement.  After all, the government’s credibility, and its rule of law in a manner of speaking, is on the line, illegalities are illegalities people simply cannot be allowed to flout the law, whatever that law may be.

The government needs to set the example, it must enforce the law and in so doing it may just justify those derogations that remain in place, we may just avoid the long arm of European law and trappers may just be able to continue practising their pastime, in a legitimate way if things are done properly.