“Hunting holidays in Gozo were permitted during spring season” – BLM

by Gozo News · May 8, 2020

BirdLife Malta has said that what has “characterised the spring hunting season 2020 is hunters stationary in hides…hunters in locations good for Turtle-dove migration…hunters using Turtle-dove decoys and modified shotguns capable of firing more than three rounds…hunters with children, at times even handling guns.”

BirdLife Malta, in a statement said that it, “can also confirm that hunting holidays in Gozo (a mecca for Turtle-dove hunting) for Maltese hunters were also permitted during the season, with hunters allowed to freely travel to Gozo for this purpose.”

The organisation went on to say that the season closed a week ago – “a season supposedly open only for Quail, but which, as widely anticipated, turned out to be a deliberate smokescreen allowing the illegal hunting of the protected Turtle-dove.”

Between 10th and 30th April, especially during the peak Turtle-dove migration from the 19th April onwards, hunters were out in force to kill Turtle-doves.

“This can be clearly witnessed in a video we are releasing today, summarising the highlights of this year’s spring hunting season, which will now be sent to the European Commission together with the results from the season,” it said.

BirdLife Malta added that it is requesting the Commission to take action against Malta.

It explained that limitations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis this year did not permit volunteers from across Europe to join BirdLife Malta’s annual Spring Watch camp in overseeing the season’s illegalities.

“Nonetheless, an average of two teams during hunting hours recorded over 167 illegalities during the three-week season, the majority of which concerned the illegal targeting of Turtle-doves,” said BLM

It went on to say that “this included the use of illegal hunting methods such as Turtle-dove decoys and modified shotguns capable of firing more than three rounds.”

Police presence compared to the intensity of hunting “turned out to be weak, with BirdLife Malta teams only noticing the presence of police officers in just 11% of the hunting hotspots visited,” the organisation said.

As a result, BirdLife Malta said that “strict supervision could not be guaranteed to 6,148 hunters granted the licence to hunt, especially during the peak Turtle-dove migration period which kicked off in earnest from 19th April onwards.”

According to the organisation, “a staggering 65% of active hunters were observed stationary in hides and locations good for Turtle- dove migration while only 21% of hunters seen in mornings were genuinely hunting Common Quail.”

BirdLife said that a total of 50 illegally shot protected birds were recovered this year, out of which the largest number (18) were Turtle-doves – with two teams out in the morning “encountering first-hand dead or injured doves while visiting hunting hotspots in Malta and Gozo.”

Compared to recent past spring hunting seasons, this was “the worst-ever,” BirdLife said “With a total of 50, this year we have in fact received more than four times the birds we collected last year (12) and more birds than the last three spring hunting seasons put together (45).”

BirdLife Malta concluded by reiterating its position that “spring hunting for Turtle-dove has no future in Malta and the European Union (EU), and the Maltese Government should be held accountable for letting this happen. We now expect the European Commission to take action against Malta.”