Poachers have already caught national quota of turtle-dove, says Birdlife
Animal conservation volunteers say they have witnessed days of illegal hunting
The spring hunting season for turtle dove has not yet started yet poachers have already caught more than the 1,500 national quota allowed by law, bird activists have claimed.
Birdlife Malta said all its spring watch volunteer teams witnessed illegal hunting of turtle dove during the past week, with especially intense poaching activity in the north-west of Gozo and the FKNK-administered Mizieb.
Over 80 per cent of hunters spotted by Bird Life teams were illegally targeting turtle-doves, the NGO said.
Currently, only the hunting of quail is permitted. Hunters can only legally hunt turtle dove as of April 21, with authorities having set a maximum quota of 1,500 shot turtle-doves for the season. There are roughly 9,000 licensed hunters in Malta and Gozo.
While quail hunting requires hunters to move through open areas with low vegetation, hunting for turtle-dove takes place from stationary locations such as hides or hunting towers.
“The majority of hunters observed over the past five days were seen stationary with shotguns in hand inside their hides, with many hiding as soon as they noticed the observing Spring Watch teams,” Birdlife said in a statement.
Birdlife said it had reported several incidents to the police’s Environmental Protection Unit (EPU), including turtle-doves being shot and hunting taking place within 200 metres of residential areas.
Volunteers also saw other protected bird species, including a collared dove, common kestrel, hobby and bee-eater being shot and killed.
“This behaviour certainly does not help with the two infringement procedures open against Malta – one on enforcement and the other on spring hunting of Turtle-doves,” Birdlife said.
Those infringement procedures were filed by the European Commission, which says Malta is repeatedly infringing the EU’s Birds Directive.
Europe’s highest court, the European Court of Justice, had in in 2009 ruled that Malta is in breach of the law by permitting spring hunting. Despite those rulings, successive governments applied various derogations to ensure the practice continued.
Birdlife noted that the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU) has still not published the total number of hunting licences issued, nor their distribution across Malta and Gozo, “despite repeated requests for this information.”
It also noted that a legal notice permitting the trapping of turtle-doves for “research purposes” has not yet been issued. The NGO said it was ironic that trappers were allowed to trap turtle-doves to encourage them to breed and multiply, while at the same time the birds were being illegally killed at Mizieb.
To report illegal hunting, dial 119 and ask for the EPU or contact BirdLife Malta on 21347645 or 7925 5697.