Illegal trapping of plovers on Malta is 'out of control'

Bird trappers on Malta and Gozo use the cloak of darkness as well as the absence of the police to illegally trap thousands of plovers and other waders at night, the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) has said.

In the past fortnight members of CABS have conducted night patrols between 11 pm and 4.30am to document the amount of birds trapped outside the permitted hours. They found and mapped 82 active trapping sites, which CABS Wildlife Crime Officer Fiona Burrows said was "more than twice as many as found in 2015".

CABS criticised that the Administrative Law Enforcement (ALE) — the police unit responsible for hunting and trapping illegalities — was not on duty on any of the eight nights when the teams were out and tried to report the cases to the unit. Ms Burrows added that "In most of the cases we were told by police officers to wait until the morning and then report everything to the ALE”. In two cases from San Lawrence (Gozo) and Zebbug the local police responded to the report and seized nets, callers as well as plastic decoys. In both incidents the trappers could not be identified as they escaped in the darkness when the police arrived.

Live Golden Plover decoy (Photo: CABS)

Early morning on Sunday 11 December, CABS alerted the headquarters again after the birdwatchers found a massive trapping site in Tal Qadi, near Salina, active at 1.30 am. Officers of the Naxxar police station followed the report, but had to wait until ALE were on duty after 5 am before action was taken. A 40-metre clap-net was seized as well as several unringed Golden Plovers and a Lapwing, which were being used as live decoys. Once again, the trappers fled and thus were not apprehended.

Ms Burrows added: "In all the other 79 cases nothing was done by the authorities as the ALE were not on duty, and district police were not equipped to deal with the incidents. This contradicts the word of the Police Commissioner (CoP) who in January declared that the ALE working hours will be expanded to deal with illegal night trapping."

The Commisioner's statement can be found here.

As Golden Plovers are a species of conservation concern in the EU, the Maltese government has declared that trapping of this species will only be allowed under strict supervision and limited conditions. To ensure that only a small number of birds are caught the quota for this year's season was set at 700 birds, to be trapped only in daylight hours. Trappers are obliged to report every bird caught by SMS, so that the season can be closed when the bag limit is reached. CABS said that this bag limit only exists on paper as trappers will never report birds caught illegally in the night.

Another live Golden Plover decoy (Photo: CABS)

CABS Press Officer Axel Hirschfeld added: "Golden Plovers are mostly nocturnal thus making it very easy for trappers to catch whole flocks in the dark. With dozens of trapping sites operating every night it stands to reason that a four-figure number has been already caught illegally since November. The government's total failure to curb with illegal night trapping has invited poachers to catch much more birds than allowed. The quota for plovers has been exceeded and the season should be closed with immediate effect."