CABS find 6 illegal trapping sites on Gozo and Malta

by Gozo News · August 10, 2016

In the last days teams of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) conducted an operation against the illegal trapping of protected Oystercatchers, sandpipers and other waterbirds on Gozo and Malta.

CABS said that a total of 6 freshly prepared trapping sites were found in Xewkija (Gozo). Zejtun, Mgarr, l´Ahrax and Mqabba.

“All sites were equipped with activated nets, plastic decoys and electronic bird callers to attract protected species,” CABS Wildlife Crime Officer Fiona Burrows reports.

The police- after being alerted by CABS – conducted searches at all locations and seized several sets of clap nets and bird callers as well as a number of live protected birds including 2 Wood Sandpipers and 1 Green Sandpiper.

“These wader species are under the highest protection of Annex 1 of the EU Birds Directive, so according to Maltese Law the perpetrators- if found guilty- should be given an adequate fine and permanent revocation of the trapping license,” Burrows added.

CABS said that most of the sites were found during aerial survey flights. Others were found during night patrols to detect illegal bird callers used by the trappers. At least three of the sites have been known as being used for illegal trapping before.

CABS stressed that its team were not able to monitor the whole countryside. Therefore the sites found represent only a fraction of the poaching. But according to the eNGO – which have conducted anti-poaching operations on Malta for more than 10 years

It said that the number of illegal trapping installations found during the summer months “has slightly decreased in the past three years.”

“The situation is still serious but there is a clear drop in cases reported during the wader migration season,” CABS president Heinz Schwarze stated.

He said that this decrease was mainly due to a combination of the increased surveillance activity by CABS and the new stringent penalties for hunting and trapping offences.