The spring hunting season for quail opens on Sunday and runs for the next three weeks, with hunters allowed to shoot from two hours before sunrise until noon.

A national bag limit of 5,000 quail has been set and hunters may not shoot more than five quail a day and not more than 10 birds during the whole season.

Although the season is supposedly only for quail, this year the dates have been changed and they coincide with the peak migration of the turtle dove.

This has raised concerns over the safety of this protected species, which is subject to a moratorium for the second year running. The government, backed by the main hunters’ organisations, declared a spring moratorium after the bird was declared a vulnerable species internationally.

Turtle dove, however, is the preferred quarry for the vast majority of hunters.

Birdlife said hunters across the country have already been observed clearing their hides when quail hunting does not require the use of hides. It said this was an indication of what lay in store.

“It is clear that turtle doves will be killed due to this change in dates, as there is no doubt either that enforcing the moratorium is going to be close to impossible. The 2018 spring hunting season follows an autumn hunting season which was the worst one for illegalities in the past five years,” Birdlife said.

It is clear that turtle doves will be killed due to this change in dates

The organisation also revealed that an Ornis Committee meeting usually held ahead of the season to plan enforcement was last week called off at the last minute due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

6754 licences issued for Spring Hunting 2018 have been issued. Last year 6,653 hunters registered to hunt in spring.

Hunters are bound by law to report their catch. However, the latest Game Reporting Data published by the government has raised serious doubts about whether they will stick to this obligation. The report for last autumn shows that of the more than 15,000 registered hunters and trappers, only 2,167 sent messages declaring their catch.

Another major issue is how hunters will be controlled. While the government insists that more checks are being carried out, both CABS (Committee Against Bird Slaughter, an NGO based in Germany) and Birdlife have been complaining that the number of illegalities has been increasing over the past few years.

Ornithologist Natalino Fenech told The Sunday Times of Malta that while the EU Birds Directive banned spring hunting because of the ecological principle that birds on their way to breeding grounds should be protected, on the other hand the EU was hypocritical about the turtle dove.  “Once the species has been declared vulnerable, the EU should have imposed a moratorium even in autumn throughout Europe, and it should have flexed its muscles and lobbied other countries outside  the EU to do likewise. If millions of turtle doves were not shot in Europe in autumn alone, it would help the population recover.

“Hunters may be sparing them locally but they are going after them with a vengeance in European and other countries. Maltese hunters are a very small proportion of the many hunters from Europe and the Arab world who hunt turtle doves from August to September in Europe and throughout autumn and winter in Arab and African countries.

“Bags of turtle doves in such countries can amount to 100 birds per hunter per day. Such hunting is not sustainable and something has to be done about it,” Dr Fenech said.

Asked about the dates of the current hunting season, Dr Fenech said once a decision had been taken to allow hunters to hunt quail, it made sense to open the season when it was more likely they encountered quail.

“Quail migration these days coincides with turtle dove migration. It made no sense opening the season in March, when the number of quail present is insignificant. I would however have expected the Environment Resources Authority not to recommend that hunters be allowed to shoot from two hours before sunrise once the season is only for quail.”

He said hunters look for quail with dogs after sunrise, so while hunters have to be given time to get to their shooting places before sunrise, shooting should have been permitted only after sunrise, and if need be an extra hour given in the afternoon.

“Allowing shooting when it is still dark increases the possibility of abuse that can neither be controlled nor checked.

“Hunters should realise that illegal hunting harms them both in the short and long term. It continues to reinforce the perception that hunters are all the same. That is why it’s in hunters’ own interest that there are effective controls,” Dr Fenech said.

An illegally shot turtle dove. Photo: Birdlife

Disagreement over dates

The spring hunting season has been a bone of contention between hunters and environmentalists ever since the European Court decided Malta could have a strictly supervised and limited season, because autumn hunting was not considered to be a viable alternative for hunters.

Neither is there any consensus over dates. Birdlife has argued against the opening the season altogether, even threatening to organise another referendum, but says the dates suggested by the Environment and Resources Authority, March 15 to April 4, would have made more sense.

Hunters wanted the season to run between April 10 and 30. The Ornis Committee recommended April 5 to 25, and the government decided it should be between April 1 and 21.