The spring hunting season begins on Saturday, with licensed hunters permitted to catch quail (summien) until the end of the month. 

A hunting season was recommended by the government’s consultative Ornis committee by four votes to one, with two abstentions. The committee chairman, FKNK representative and two government representatives voted in favour of a spring hunting season, while BirdLife Malta voted against. Environmental regulator ERA and another government representative abstained. 

Hunters are permitted to hunt quail until April 30, with hunting permitted from two hours before sunrise until noon. They are legally obliged to report each catch they make by sending an SMS to 79398550 or through the Game Reporting MT app for Android or Iphone smartphones, with the season automatically closing if more than 2,400 quail are reported caught.

In reality, reporting figures are only a fraction of that total. Just 2.7 per cent of Malta’s 10,500 licenced hunters – 292 - reported catches in all of 2020, mirroring the low numbers of reports filed in previous years. 

The government’s decision to allow spring hunting has raised concerns about a lack of enforcement available to catch poachers who break the law, with many enforcement agencies busy policing COVID-19 public health regulations. 

Similar concerns were also voiced when the government allowed hunting to take place in 2020, with activist group Birdlife Malta reporting more hunting irregularities that year than in the two previous ones combined. 

Other concerns relate to the risk of facing EU punishment for allowing quail to be hunted in the spring at the same time as the migration of the protected turtle dove. Malta is already facing infringement proceedings from Brussels for alleged breaches of the EU Birds Directive. 

In a statement on Saturday morning, hunters’ federation FKNK urged its members to obey the law and hunt responsibly while following COVID-19 regulations, but also urged members to contact the police’s Environment Protection Unit on 21224001 if they “felt harassed by third parties.”