Malta: Murder most fowl?
Malta's EU arrival sparks hunting debate
By CNN European Political Editor Robin Oakley
VALETTA, Malta (CNN) -- All countries in the EU have to adopt its laws. But new arrivals have been allowed to negotiate special exemptions where national traditions are strong.
Malta, the smallest entrant, held out controversially for the right of its inhabitants to keep hunting some migratory birds like turtle doves and trapping finches.
At the Ghadira nature reserve, egrets, moorhens and waders enjoy the salt marsh shallows, along with more colorful species like yellow wagtails.
But getting to the reserve can be risky. More than 6,000 Maltese are licensed to hunt and conservationists claim nothing is safe, even on the spring migration to breed.
Says Ghadira nature reserve warden Charles Gauci: "Egrets are clearly very much at risk even though they are protected. And also unfortunately birds like swallows -- if there is nothing else to shoot they are shot at random."
But many Maltese are entirely unapologetic about their traditions.
Trapper John Vella was happy to show how he uses a captive turtle dove, hooded and tethered to a platform, as a lure to entice others into his clap nets.
Primitive
"I attract the birds by showing that one and when they come in I just pull. It's a very primitive trapping which has been used since the Knights of Malta," he says.
"The problem is we used to catch around 500 a year, now we are catching 20 a year."
Why does Vella, and his friends, trap turtle doves? The answer, it seems is not just to admire the birds in their aviaries.
"It's a very good bird to eat. It's a delicacy. Some keep only twenty for next year and the others they will cook them," Vella says.
But many don't trap for the pot.
By day, Charles Micaleff works for a Birdlife Malta nature reserve. But off duty he has more than a hundred birds in cages and aviaries that dominate his home.
He doesn't see any contradiction. Trapping, he says, is not threatening species.
"No, no, no, it doesn't make sense," says Micaleff. "In one day you can see thousands of chaffinches."
While some argue that Malta's hunters are endangering species which fly over the island on migration, Micaleff insists there is a different explanation for lower bird numbers.
"It's the chemicals of course," he says. "Everyone knows that, everyone."
'Harassment'
The debate remains a vigorous one. Bird-keepers argue they are constantly harassed.
"Police come every moment and search for something illegal," says Micaleff.
But wardens believability listen too much to the hunters.
Says warden Gauci: "I know the Malta tourist authority receives several complaints a day about hunting and trapping but somehow the government keeps closing its eyes."
So with EU entry next month, does Micaleff believe he will still be keeping his birds in 20 years?
"I think so. I wish I die with them," he confesses.
Bird watchers had been hoping that Malta's arrival in the EU would see greater curbs on the island's hunting of migrant species.
For the moment they've largely been disappointed.
However they hope that greater exposure over time will lead to a new balance between local tradition and growing pressures for conservation.
