As the European Court of Justice (ECJ) prepares for this week’s (Thursday 7th March) hearing on the smokescreen finch ‘research’ derogation in “Case C-23/23 European Commission v Republic of Malta”, BirdLife Malta has submitted a report on its findings and what it experienced during the past finch trapping derogation from October to December 2023.
During this period BirdLife Malta systematically observed several trapping sites to understand better the impacts of this trapping derogation masked as a ‘scientific research’ exercise.
With over 2,600 registered trapping sites for finches last autumn, fieldwork carried out by BirdLife Malta revealed that even a greater number of trapping sites were operating illegally, with some becoming registered with the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU) after reports were filed with police. Legally registered finch trapping sites were also observed abusing the derogation conditions, with finches caught and kept in all cases.
BirdLife Malta Head of Conservation Nicholas Barbara stated: “With a simple and highly conservative extrapolation of what we have seen, we calculate that a minimum of 51,400 finches have been trapped from permitted sites and taken into captivity during the past season, instead of being released. This number comes out if we assume that at least one finch landed on each trapping site per day if only 30 days of the 61-day-long season were good for trapping. From what we witnessed, trappers managed to catch around 65% of the birds that landed on a trapping site, with the remainder managing to escape. In all cases of caught birds, however, these were never released. This is a far cry from any scientific research activity which the derogation is supposedly aimed for”. We have released this video that evidences these findings.
The report also states that even if a bird caught by a trapper during this trapping derogation was theoretically released, the likelihood that this bird would be caught again in another trapping site was still high considering the stress on migration and the negative impact that over 2,600 active finch trapping sites caused. During the last season, trappers only managed to report 30 birds with fitted rings from abroad, in the process decimating an estimated minimum of 51,400 birds from the wild. This shows how this derogation not only is a scam and a smokescreen for illegal trapping, but it is also an unjustified killing that has failed to bring about any noteworthy scientific data.
BirdLife Malta also pointed out how this derogation has also fuelled the wildlife trade of finches over the past years, with thousands of such birds smuggled into Malta from Sicily for them to be used as live decoys. Footage recently aired on local media shows the horrendous misery and cruelty that these finches endure when they are kept in small cages or are tied onto a trapping site so that they flap around to attract migrating finches to eventually find their same sad fate. Watch the footage here.
