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The feathers turned red as blood oozed out of the holes created by burning lead pellets. The Flamingo bowed its head and lay still in the water. The sea in St Thomas Bay, Marsaskala was to be its final resting place.
The shooting of two flamingos last Wednesday at Marsaskala was only the latest installment of an ongoing saga that sees protected bird species shot at indiscriminately by unlawful hunters.
And yet, when confronted with these facts, the EU Commission insists that it “has not received any evidence that shooting of Annex I species (protected birds)” is taking place rampantly and continuously. Countless media reports on illegal hunting in Malta can be easily accessed over the internet.
A short-toed eagle was shot in the limits of Mosta on Monday while a number of hunters were caught in possession of killed honey buzzards at Buskett gardens, a bird sanctuary. The opening of the hunting season on 1 September was described by Birdlife Malta as a “mere formality” for most hunters, who insist on shooting at anything that flies in the sky. In the weeks preceding September hunters killed an Eleonora Falcon, a very rare and protected bird of prey. A number of Herons also met the same fate.
The ‘hunting at sea’ season opens on 1 October but a number of hunters have already been caught ‘enjoying’ their ‘hobby’ out at sea. This does not seem to have caught the EU Commission’s eye. Asked by MaltaToday, the Commission refrained from commenting on the countless abuses perpetrated by hunters at sea citing “absence of precise information on the situation in Malta.”
Asked about the general transposition of EU bird directives in Malta, the EU’s Environment Directorate said: “The Commission is currently checking the complete and correct transposition of the provisions of the Birds Directive, its effective implementation and enforcement into the legislation of all the new Member States including Malta.”
It also pointed out that “the fact that between January and May 2004 hundreds of complaints against hunters have been launched by the environment office of Malta shows that the Maltese authorities have made substantial progress.”
The Commission told MaltaToday it would “follow up this issue with Maltese authorities” if it received information on the rampant hunting of protected species.
The enforcement of hunting regulations is carried out by the Administrative Law Enforcement section of the police. But the unit has to cope with other enforcement duties and is grossly undermanned when compared to the number of hunters and trappers.
On the contentious issue of Spring hunting, the Commission said “the fixing of hunting periods is established by Member States according to Article 7.4 (of the Birds Directive), and must ensure that the birds are not hunted during the rearing season and, in the case of migratory species, during their period of reproduction or during their return to their rearing grounds.”
However, the Commission stressed it has “yet to receive from the Maltese government information on hunting dates and any derogation they might be applying to them.” In due course the Commission will review the consistency of these dates with the obligations of the Birds Directive.
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