What an open spring hunting season did in Malta
Monitoring camps in 2011 recorded nearly 950 shots outside hunting hours and dozens of protected birds shot at, more than the three previous years.
The argument about spring hunting in Malta has been conducted, for years, largely in terms of principle: whether a derogation is lawful, whether tradition weighs against a directive, whether enforcement is adequate. The 2011 season produced something more useful, which is a set of numbers.
What was recorded
Monitoring camps run by BirdLife Malta and by the Committee Against Bird Slaughter placed observers in the field across the spring hunting period. Their initial results recorded:
- close to 950 shots fired outside legal hunting hours;
- 61 protected birds shot at;
- 52 protected birds still flying, visibly wounded;
- 22 shot protected birds received by BirdLife Malta during the season.
The comparison is the part that carries the argument. Both the number seen shot at and the number handed in wounded exceeded the equivalent periods of the three preceding years put together — years in which the spring season had not been opened.
Why that comparison matters
The standard defence of a regulated spring season is that legal hunting of permitted quarry and illegal shooting of protected species are separate problems, and that opening the former does not affect the latter.
The 2011 figures are difficult to reconcile with that. What an open season changes is not only who may legally shoot but the environment in which illegal shooting happens: guns are in the field legitimately, shots are unremarkable, and the practical difficulty of distinguishing lawful from unlawful activity rises sharply for anyone attempting to police it. A single shot at a harrier in a countryside otherwise silent is conspicuous. The same shot during an open season is not.
Why spring specifically
The reason spring shooting is treated as a distinct problem is demographic, not sentimental. A bird killed in spring is an adult returning to breed, so the loss is the bird plus whatever it would have raised that year. Autumn shooting removes birds after the breeding season, including that year’s young, most of which would not survive to breed anyway.
The two are not equivalent in their effect on a population, which is the basis for treating the spring period differently in law.
Why Malta
Migration over the central Mediterranean concentrates onto a very small landmass. Birds crossing the sea arrive tired and low over a few hundred square kilometres, which makes the Maltese islands an outstanding place to watch migration and, for the same reasons, an efficient place to shoot it.
The species affected are the ones that concentrate: harriers, falcons and other raptors, herons, storks, spoonbills and bee-eaters. None of them is legal quarry anywhere in the season.
What the camps are for
A monitoring camp is not a protest. It is a data-collection exercise: observers in the field throughout the season, recording shots outside hours, birds shot at, and injured birds recovered.
That matters because the alternative is an argument between assertions. Recovered birds are taken for treatment, and the records feed enforcement and the legal proceedings that have run alongside this issue for years. Counting is the part that makes the rest possible.
BirdLife Malta publishes current figures, and the legal position on derogations has moved considerably since 2011. The southern end of the same crossing is covered in the account of trapping on the Egyptian coast. Where the recording is done by volunteers rather than by enforcement, the same idea underlies Birders Against Wildlife Crime on British moorland.
Common questions
What is spring hunting?
Shooting birds during the spring migration, as they return north to breed. It is prohibited across the European Union under the Birds Directive, with narrow derogations available in specific circumstances. Malta has repeatedly opened a spring season under derogation, which has been the subject of long-running legal dispute.
Why is spring shooting treated differently from autumn shooting?
Because of what is being shot. A bird killed in spring is an adult on its way to breed, so the loss includes the young it would have raised. Autumn shooting takes birds after the breeding season, including that year's young, which is a different demographic cost.
What did the monitoring find?
In the 2011 spring season, camps run by BirdLife Malta and the Committee Against Bird Slaughter recorded close to 950 shots fired outside legal hunting hours, 61 protected birds shot at, and 52 protected birds seen with gunshot injuries in flight. BirdLife Malta received 22 shot protected birds during the season.
How did that compare with previous years?
Worse than the three previous springs put together, on both measures: protected birds seen being fired at, and wounded ones handed in. Each of those three seasons had been kept closed, which is what makes the comparison worth drawing.
Which species are affected?
Birds concentrated over the islands on migration: raptors including harriers and falcons, herons, storks, spoonbills and bee-eaters. None of these are legal quarry.
Why does Malta matter so much on a migration route?
Because it concentrates birds. Migrants crossing the Mediterranean funnel over a small landmass, arriving tired and low, which makes the islands both an exceptional place to watch migration and an exceptionally efficient place to shoot it.
What does a monitoring camp actually do?
Places observers in the field throughout the season to record what happens: shots outside hours, birds shot at, injured birds recovered, so that the scale of illegal activity is documented, not asserted. Recovered birds are taken for treatment, and the records support enforcement and legal argument.