Illegal hunting killed at least 99 birds last year: BirdLife Malta says this is the tip of the iceberg

Nature

In its annual assessment of illegal hunting and trapping, BirdLife says 2019 was the second-worst year in the past seven

3 February 2020, 5:52pm

by Laura Calleja

There were 99 illegally shot birds last year, in what BirdLife Malta described as the tip of the iceberg.

The number only represents the bird casualties retrieved by BirdLife and the police, which suggests that the number could probably be higher.

BirdLife released its annual assessment on illegal hunting and trapping. "The casualties make 2019 the second-worst year for illegal hunting since 2015," the organisation said.

In a statement on Monday, the NGO said that the numbers only represented the tip of the iceberg since many other shot birds are never found or end up in taxidermy collections.

BirdLife said it had received nearly 400 reports from the public - an average of eight per day - in response to its No More Callers campaign to weed out the widespread and unregulated use of electronic bird callers.

The organisation said that uncontrolled trapping of finches, which it said should be illegal following a landmark European Court of Justice judgment delivered two years ago, was putting Malta at risk of facing an escalation of infringement proceedings by the European Commission.

It said the derogation applied by Malta allowing trappers to catch two bird species was being used as a smokescreen for the largescale trapping of protected finches.

The NGO said that the authorities failed to have any form of control over legally hunted or trapped birds. “Following the 2018 Game Reporting Data Report from WBRU including results from only 9% of hunters and trappers who bothered reporting any catches, this year’s trapping season miraculously reached the season’s quota of 700 trapped Golden Plover at the last few hours of the last day!”

BirdLife said that despite all this, the government continued to ignore the proposal for the setting up of a Wildlife Crime Unit to enforce the laws. The creation of such a dedicated unit enjoys unanimous backing of all the members of the Ornis Committee, BirdLife said.

It added that more than a year has passed since Ornis recommended to then parliamentary secretary Clint Camilleri the creation of such a unit.

BirdLife Malta said the hunting and trapping seasons were characterised by an Administrative Law Enforcement (ALE) Police unit at its lowest-ever capacity in recent years, with zero back-ups from the specialist enforcement branch within the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU).

BirdLife Malta said that the unit had ended up with zero staff assigned to it following various resignations over the past few years. “This has led to a nonchalant attitude by the government towards illegalities, as characterised by several episodes of protected birds being killed – from the initial massacre of Greater Flamingos in August before the season opened, to the shooting of a flock of rare Short-toed Eagles in November, with all birds believed to have been shot dead.”

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In Malta, legal loopholes give poachers cover to hunt migratory birds

by Jason J. Gregg on 11 January 2019

Malta is a stopping-off point for some 170 species of birds migrating between Europe and Africa. But poachers kill or capture up to 200,000 wild birds every year — a problem widespread across the Mediterranean.

In particular, illegal trapping of birds such as finches continues to persist in Malta, despite the European Court of Justice ruling against Malta for allowing the trapping of protected species.

To legalize finch trapping within the framework of European law, Malta used a legal maneuver called a derogation by claiming that finch trapping was a traditional practice in the country.

Such legal derogations are being used as a smokescreen to illegally trap finches and other protected species not just in Malta but in other countries as well.

Within a day of arriving on the Mediterranean island of Malta on their southbound migration last August, three of 18 white storks were shot and killed by poachers.

Less than two weeks later, just one of the birds was left alive. By Aug. 29, 19 days since the flock arrived, all of the birds had disappeared.

Malta is a stopping-off point for some 170 species of birds from at least 48 different countries migrating between Europe and Africa. The vast majority of these birds, including white storks (Ciconia ciconia) and black storks (Ciconia nigra), are strictly protected under the European Union’s Birds Directive of 1972. But in Malta, poachers kill or capture up to 200,000 wild birds every year: shooting them for food, taxidermy or simply target practice, or trapping them to keep as pets or live hunting decoys.

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19 illegal bird trapping sites dismantled in Gozo

Monday, April 23, 2018, 12:40

Joint CABS, WBRU, police operation

Joint patrols of CABS, the Gozo police and WBRU enforcement officers dismantled 19 illegal bird trapping installations on Gozo over the weekend.

The raid which targeted illegal trapping sites found by CABS volunteers during the last week resulted in investigations against eight owners on whose land the active traps and nets were found.

In the course of the operations, 10 freshly caught Turtle Doves, eight Starlings, two Quails, one Hawfinch and one Greenfinch were confiscated and subsequently released.

In Marsalforn a trapper was caught red-handed and is expected to be taken to court soon. Police and WBRU announced that they will investigate the owners of the land where the other traps have been found.

CABS press officer Axel Hirschfeld said that in the last two years CABS alone reported more than 30 cases involving more than 500 caged Turtle Doves which were either illegally caught or used as live decoys.

Read on 

Two more convictions for illegal bird trapping in Malta

BY GOZO NEWS · OCTOBER 14, 2015

This morning a bird trapper was fined 2400 Euros and lost his hunting and trapping licence for 3 years after being found guilty by the court of illegally trapping finches inside the Majistral nature & history park this spring.

Another man from Zurrieq was fined 1200 Euros and had both of his licences suspended for a period of 2 years for illegal finch trapping in the spring of 2014.

Both cases were reported to the police by CABS and they also provided the court with video evidence of the illegal trapping they had observed.

Source ...

Action against illegal bird trapping on Gozo

Campaign Against Bird Slaughter bird guards in Gozo dismantle two large illegal trapping sites near Sarraflu and Sannat, in Gozo.

Staff Reporter

14 August 2014, 12:57pm

Police officers removing an illegal clap net near Sannat

CABS Bird Guards and the Gozo Police have dismantled two large illegal trapping sites near Sarraflu and Sannat, in Gozo.

Three sets of clap nets, a live sandpiper as well as several plastic decoys for protected bird species were seized during the operation earlier this week.

According to CABS, one trapper has been filmed red-handed when he was actively trapping waders with a live decoy and an illegal bird caller imitating protected Greenshanks. The video footage clearly shows the face of the man and was passed on to the Gozo police as evidence.

CABS said that since the start of its anti-wader trapping operations in July a total of 26 active trapping sites have been reported to the police.

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Operation Nest in peace: 24 illegal trapping sites dismantled, say CABS

The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) has said in a statment “that in the last 10 days its investigations have led to the dismantling of 24 active trapping sites on Malta and Gozo. Numerous trapping paraphernalia such as clap nets, mist nets and cage traps as well as live Greenfinches, Linnets and a Robin have been confiscated by the authorities.”

CABS added that “at least 7 trappers were filmed actively trapping or have been apprehended by the police. The men are expected to be arraigned in court soon. A video summary of the evidence filmed by CABS and the action taken by the police has been published on YouTube today.”

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