Hunters under close observation as spring hunting gets underway

The Montagu's Harrier that glided over the green meadows off Dwejra in Malta before the opening of the hunting season may not be so lucky this time round. To go by previous monitoring expeditions by BirdLife and the German-based Campaign Against Bird Slaughter, Maltese hunters are known for not respecting the numerous hunting laws and shooting at everything that flies.

Nicholas Barbara, BirdLife's conservation and policy officer, is categorical about government's decision to open spring hunting as Monday marks the NGO's first outing in its 2012 Springwatch campaign.

"The government is responsible for the mess the country is in simply because it presented flawed data to the European Court of Justice to substantiate hunters' claim that autumn hunting of turtle doves and quails does not provide an alternative to spring."

The spring hunting season opened last Thursday, allowing hunters to shoot 11,000 turtle dove and 5,000 quail, derogating from the ban on hunting in spring as laid down in Birds Directive, the EU law that protects wild birds during their migration from Africa to breeding grounds in Europe.

The quotas were established following a decision by the European Court of Justice that allowed Malta to open a limited hunting season in the spring and in the autumn, even after the European Commission took the country to its court for derogating from the hunting ban.

But Barbara claims the numbers of shot and trapped birds presented to the European Court of Justice were solely based on hunters' declarations, which were never verified. "The Malta Environment and Planning Authority was well aware of the under-reporting, but the government chose not to mention this at the ECJ," Barbara said.

"The government also used the wrong conservation status of both species by referring to their global populations (which includes Asian populations). What matters for derogations from the Birds Directive is the European population of the species in question," Barbara said.

BirdLife argue that both turtle dove and quail species are declining in Europe, so they cannot be hunted during spring according to the European Commission's own hunting guide.

"But the Commission lawyers failed to draw attention to this technical and legal fact and hence the judges did not note Malta's flawed argument. The government is now paying the price for its past actions that were solely aimed at appeasing the hunting lobby," Barbara said.

Hunters have been ordered to wear numbered armbands and carry their spring hunting license at all times, as well as reporting their catches through an SMS system and through their Carnet de Chasse before leaving hunting zones, as well as abiding by time restrictions and a daily bag limit of two birds and a season bag limit of four birds.

Police and hunting marshals are expected to monitor closely the observance of hunting regulations and conditions.

But Barbara said any system based on the honest reporting of hunters is doomed to fail. "Last year's declarations by hunters is enough evidence. Did the government react to this misreporting last year? Why would anyone expect a different reaction in the future? The government's strategy is to get the Commission to react so that they can point their fingers at the European Commission."

The secretary-general of hunters' lobby FKNK Lino Farrugia however says BirdLife simply cannot swallow the pill that the European Court of Justice accepted the Carnet de Chasse data, period.

"This data is the best available data because it can be supported by the evidence (the shot bird), whereas observations cannot... the evidence does not lie!"

The bag limits are higher than last year's quotas when government permitted the shooting of 9,000 turtle doves and 2,500 quails.

"BirdLife had gone from bird-watchers to hunters' hunters," saying BirdLife displayed a poor observation of hunters' shots, treble-counting the same shots heard by different monitors; saying that as many as 40 shots may be fired at a fast high-flying turtle dove without a hit. "Hunters have been deprived of their traditional socio-cultural passion for four years, and that shots were being fired at out-of-range birds by some hunters," Farrugia said.

The Ornis Committee 'smokescreen'

The decision to open the season for hunting is officially recommended to the environment minister by the Ornis Committee, which groups the FKNK and BirdLife together with experts on hunting.

Barbara claims the committee is used as a scapegoat "Haven't the past actions of Ornis's chairman Louis Cilia indicated that he is delivering what the government wants? This is why BirdLife asked him to resign, and we firmly stand by our call."

Barbara adds that hunters have five months in autumn and winter to shoot over 40 species in the Maltese islands: "We are not against it as long as it is done within the limits of the law. However, both trapping and spring hunting are banned by the Birds Directive, and Malta should respect the EU law accordingly. Both the position of the Nationalist Party in government, and the Labour Party in Opposition do not seem to be much different from each other when it comes to hunting.

"The only solution to this problem seems to lie within the electorate. For too long, Malta's political system has been hijacked by a small group of people whose sole aim seems to be preserving their 'hobby' at the expense of Maltese taxpayers and Malta's natural heritage.

"If for once the majority of Maltese citizens, who have had enough of this spring and illegal hunting charade, voice their opinion during the general elections, the political parties may get the message once and for all. But if the voters do not change their stand, why would anyone expect the political parties to do so?"

Lino Farrugia, on the other hand, slams the government's decision to open the spring hunting season on 12 April as "insulting".

"Hunters had to receive a notice by mail between Tuesday and Wednesday, a day before the spring hunting season opened, with instructions where one must collect the special license. Hunters paid a €50 fee a week earlier and they were to be informed of the collection of licenses just a day or two before the hunting season was about to open. It's pathetic."

MaltaToday has been informed that shots could be heard in particular areas, such as Qrendi and Gharghur a week before the hunting season even began.