Surveillance of wader trapping site on Malta
Waders such as lapwings, various plovers and ruff can be hunted legally in Malta in autumn and winter. The animals are eaten. When hunting the endangered golden plover, the use of live decoys is permitted. As the species is difficult to breed, the Maltese government allows the catching of golden plovers with nets in late autumn every year by means of a special derogation. Among the conditions is that no electronic decoys are used and trapping is only allowed during the day.
However, the huge trapping facilities are often put into operation illegally during midsummer, when redshank, greenshank, dunlin, ruff and ringed plovers pass through.
In order to cover both trapping periods, CABS teams are active in august to investigate illegal trapping and again in autumn to monitor compliance with the trapping derogation for golden plover. As with our work against finch trapping, we rely on aerial surveys to map out active trapping sites. Our ground teams then check the sites, gather evidence and call in the police when the trappers are found in-situ.
For this work, our volunteers have to work through the night - our actions against wader trapping take place almost exclusively in the darkness. The trapping sites in summer - one way or another illegal - are mainly operated at night and can be located relatively easily by the noisy electronic decoy callers. In late autumn, when trapping is only allowed during the day, night patrols are also routine. This is because many bird trappers do not comply with the regulations and trap illegally during the night and with the help of electronic lures.
Due to the ongoing special derogation for golden plover trapping, the sites cannot simply be shut down. Nevertheless, in recent years, we have observed a decrease in illegal wader trapping during the summer - a nice success of our work!