Illegal sea-hunters kill protected Great Cormorant
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BirdLife Malta has today revealed photos of what the NGO said are two illegal sea-hunters collecting a Great Cormorant, a protected bird, from a dinghy after shooting it just a few hundred meters off the shore of Pembroke last Saturday.
BirdLife said that the bird was shot at 6:26 in the morning from a dinghy just a few hundred meters from the shore. Legal Notice 79 bans hunting at sea within 3 kilometers of the coast. A birdwatcher in the area witnessed the incident and managed to take photos of the poachers collecting the bird. The photos have also been sent to the police.
The Great Cormorant is a protected species under the EU and Maltese law (1) and is a migratory species which over-winters in the Mediterranean, moving from coast to coast in search of feeding grounds singly or in small flocks.
BirdLife Malta stated that the illegal hunting this autumn has been widespread and much worse compared to last year as many poachers have been recorded shooting at protected birds, even in Bird Sanctuaries and in front of police.
BirdLife alone has received 66 shot protected birds since the beginning of the migration this autumn. The conservation organisation stated that this figure represented only the tip of the iceberg and is likely to increase if the government continued to deny the scale of illegal shooting in Malta.
Note: The Great Cormorant is protected under Annex 1 of the Birds Directive and LN79 of 2006.
Photo above shows the two sea-hunters in their dinghy picking up the shot Great Cormorant. (Photo by BirdLife Malta).
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