BirdLife Malta advised that the controversial, “smokescreen finch research season,” closed yesterday – Wednesday.

The NGO claimed that the `research season’ for finches been “widely abused by the trapping community to trap and keep finches across Malta and Gozo.”

It stressed that, as of today, any trapping site or trapper seen attempting to attract or catch finches will be acting illegally and should be reported to police accordingly.

A trapping season for Golden Plover and Song Thrush, however, still ensues with trapping for Song Thrush permitted until the 31st of December and for Golden Plover until the 10th of January.

BirdLife Malta said that “with the derogation on finches being at the last step before a hearing at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), this could technically be the last period finch trapping has been permitted under the guise of scientific research, depending on the outcome of the ECJ sentence.”

As of today, BirdLife said that “any sites which were purely registered for finches (denoted with a yellow bird mark on its published map of registered trapping sites), should be completely dismantled without any nets on the ground.”

It warned that unattended nets risk killing wildlife and while these should have been covered during the times when these were not used during the season, they should by now have been completely dismantled.

BirdLife Malta said that if a member of the public encounters any nets unattended or on finch registered sites, you can report these to BirdLife Malta, or directly to the Environmental Protection Unit (EPU) of The Malta Police Force or Gozo Police on 119.

For a look at the map of registered sites, please click here.

Photo: BirdLife Malta

Permalink: Finch “research” trapping season closed Wednesday – BirdLife Malta