WATCH: Hunters Trap And Shoot Ducks On Public Beach In Qawra
At least two hunters were filmed trapping and shooting ducks at the Ta’ Fra Ben area in Qawra yesterday and today morning, mere metres away from joggers and tourists who stopped in their tracks to document the whole thing. One man can even be seen slowly approaching the hunters towards the end of the video.
With Malta’s autumn hunting season well underway, the subject of this latest controversy is not centred around the species of bird being hunted, but rather the worryingly public place it was all being done.
“My colleague noticed a couple of hunters yesterday at 6am at Ta’ Fra Ben,” an anonymous reader told Lovin Malta. “They were shooting ducks on the public beach where people usually swim, only a few metres away from the road and kiosks there.”
According to the report, the hunters were using plastic ducks in the sea to lure and trap other ducks into swimming into the beach, and then shooting them.
“Passers-by were actually stopping to take photos. It was all in broad daylight, with tourists close by and people halting mid-jog. When a tourist got close to take photos of the plastic decoys, one hunter lifted his gun and told him that they were hunting.”
“I called the Qawra Police Station to confirm whether shooting in a public space was legal or not,” the person told Lovin Malta. “I didn’t really get anywhere though. They said they would inform ALE (the Administrative Law Enforcement) Section, but this morning, the same thing of course happened again. My colleague returned and saw the same thing. This time, he called himself.”
Too close for comfort: Tourists approach plastic duck decoys to take photos. Two hunters, marked in red, can be seen a couple of metres away.
The scene this morning
Cars can be heard passing by in the main road just behind the person recording the video
“He called the Police Station, and this time he was passed on to the ALE Section. However, all he got was a very arrogant person brushing him off and saying that they had far more serious matters to take care. They told him they were too busy with the magistrate cases to actually bother about this nonsense.”
It was at this point that a quick search on Malta’s autumn hunting season laws came in handy.
The autumn hunting season opened last September and will close on 31st January 2018. While it is entirely legal to hunt the tufted duck and to hunt from two hours before sunrise (today’s was 6:47am) until 2 hours after sunset this time of year, location is where things get a little bit more complicated.
The law stipulates that it is illegal to hunt within 50 metres of a main road, 50 metres of a beach, or 200 metres of a residential area (which is defined as having 100 or more residents). “These are the laws the Police quoted on the phone,” the person told Lovin Malta. “But when I found the location on Google Earth and calculated some distances, it soon became obvious that the hunters were encroaching.”
While the area at Fra Ben is not listed as one of the 11 main protected beaches around Malta, it is definitely an area which is awfully close to both the public beach and the main road connecting Qawra and Buġibba. To top it off, a neighbourhood of bungalows is also situated across the street.
“Walking a dog on the beach is illegal, yet hunting is not condemned,” the concerned reader told Lovin Malta. “People are at risk of being injured, and all we want to do is understand the limitations of this country. If reporting these cases to the Police gets you absolutely nowhere, then how are the people meant to feel safe?”
Lovin Malta has reached out to the Malta Police Force for an official statement on this particular case, but have yet to receive a reply.
What do you make of all this? Let us know in the comments below.
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