Police step up fight against hunting

A European Union delegation is due to arrive in Malta today to meet officials from the Environment and Rural Affairs Ministry as well as NGOs involved in the hunting issue.

The delegation is expected to make surprise visits to areas where hunting and trapping is practised in order to obtain a first-hand impression of the situation.

The mission will be checking on how the Birds and Habitats Directives is being implemented.

Police officers from the administrative law enforcement unit in both Malta and Gozo have been carrying out patrols in a bid to prevent illegal hunting.

However, reports of illegal hunting keep pouring in, despite stern warnings by both the police and Environment Minister George Pullicino.

The police in Gozo last week unsuccessfully chased several hunters who were seen shooting protected species. Most law breakers run off at the sight of the police car or policemen in uniform.

Some hunters threw away the dead protected birds they had shot while being chased by the police. A grey heron, a purple heron, a marsh harrier and a kestrel were among the birds the police came across after chasing hunters.

Some 12 hunters have been booked in Gozo for breaching hunting regulations but none has been booked yet for shooting protected species.

Birdwatchers in both Malta and Gozo have reported several protected species being shot on a daily basis, both before the hunting season opened on March 25 as well as on Sunday afternoons, when no hunting is meant to take place.

ALE police officers in Malta yesterday found a hunter with a freshly killed night heron. Another hunter was apprehended at Marsaxlokk on Sunday afternoon, when no hunting is supposed to take place because the hunting season is closed.

Hunters have been seen shooting stone curlews, a protected species in Gozo, at l-Ahrax as well as at Pembroke over the past two weeks. Single bitterns were also shot in various localities, the last one in Marsascala on Sunday. Short-eared owls, pallid harriers, lesser kestrels, black-winged stilts, hoopoes and cuckoos were among other species bird watchers have seen being shot.

An injured kestrel was found at Xwejni, in Marsalforn, after it was shot over the weekend. A Gozitan bird lover who nurses injured birds before setting them free again said other birds found injured or killed included marsh harriers, herons, cuckoos, hoopoes and swallows.

He said that though protected, these birds are still being shot at indiscriminately, even in supposedly protected areas like Dwejra and Ta' Cenc.

A Sliema couple found a moorhen on Sunday. The bird was released at the Ghadira Nature Reserve yesterday after the couple contacted The Times.

Ghadira managing warden Charles Gauci said there were at least 30 moorhens at the reserve and about 10 pairs were breeding there annually.