If there is something environmentalists and hunters agree on, it is that the imprisonment and hefty fines meted out to two hunters who shot protected birds were a powerful message.

Magistrate Anthony Vella on Wednesday jailed Joseph Darmanin for two years and fined him €9,000 and Renè Bezzina was imprisoned for a year and fined €5,000 for shooting protected white storks on May 18, when the hunting season had closed.

Both also had their guns ­confiscated and were banned for life from obtaining a hunting licence.

They are expected to appeal.

“The message has been sent, and strongly so,” hunters’ federation secretary Lino Farrugia said. “The message will definitely get across. It will certainly serve as a deterrent. But, then, we don’t want someone guilty of some small infringement to get the same treatment and I’m confident the magistrates wouldn’t do that,” Mr Farrugia said.

He would not say whether he or the federation considered the sentence to be fair but pointed out that a lot of people commenting online on the matter – including someone who was against hunting – had said the sentence was exaggerated.

The University-based environmental NGO Greenhouse commended the severe sentence and urged the hunting community “to be harsher on these poachers and take more action to prevent such illegal hunting from happening”.

“We hope that harsh sentences such as these will be maintained so that Malta will see the end of illegal hunting once and for all. We also hope that the positive outcome of this court-case will not be watered down in the appeal stage,” Greenhouse said.

“Our organisation hopes that this judgment will not be considered a ‘quick-fix’ solution and hopes that after these individuals are made accountable for their actions the law abiding hunting community takes self-enforcement more seriously and proactively among its members. Only this can lead to long-term solutions,” it said.

Marine biologist and environmentalist Alan Deidun also welcomed the sentence saying it would “hopefully set a welcome precedent” to be followed by other magistrates in the future when dealing with similar hunting offences.

“Such consistency in sentencing is needed, especially when one considers that one of the men had previous convictions that did not serve as adequate deterrent and also because the legal system had to back the sterling work done on the ground by law enforcement officers,” Dr Deidun said.

“Law-abiding hunters should also welcome such a sentence because offenders were the major threat to their practice,” he said, adding that fines collected from poachers should go towards environmental conservation and bird breeding projects.