Great Cormorant shot - BirdLife

@Alex Ellul

Using your same reasoning we should also protect mice, rats flies and mosquitoes. I am quite sure you will gladly get rid of anyone of these without batting an eyelid.

Funilly enough birds that are considered as pests can be controlled under derogations from the birds directive. However Malta being so "Special" the only avian pest is protected by law.

Any idea who proposed it's being protected?? I can assure it is neither the hunter nor the farmer but people who share your illogical ideals.

@MMB: Once, during the cultural revolution, when food was scarce in Mao Tse Tung's China, the Chinese sparrow was considered as a pest because it was calculated that sparrows ate 10% of the grains during the spring season. So the regime ordered the farmers to eliminate the sparrows. The Chinese farmers, diligently went out and did just that. The next year, 80% of the crops were destroyed; by the worms and millions of Chinese suffered hunger that year. It was thus established that the worms were the main staple food for baby sparrows, Ma and Pa sparrow went into the rice and grain fields looking for the worms, to feed their young and in the process eliminatig the pests and saving 90% of the grains. In return, the sparrows took the other 10% of the grains as a kind of fee.
The Chinese learned their lesson
The next year, the Chinese sparrow was declared a protected bird.

So dearMMB, do learn your lesson. ALL BIRDS ARE USEFUL and more important, ALL BIRDS HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE.

If hunters had not decimated the falcon from the local sky, we would have less sparrows due to the natural food chain.

I am one of those who was always against hunting. But I sure miss the days when I used to walk in the country and there were not so many RTos. when this war against hunters started all land owners started to close thier land (by right) to the general public. I am in favor of birdlife and thier work. but in now I think they are forcing the issue too much. Let everyone know that most land owners keep thier land just for thier hobby. What will happen if they sell thier property? It will soon be developed into a block of flats. Some times I suspect that everything is fabricated.

Good riddance to the cormorant.
And before any British Soul decides to jump in they should read here.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/anglers-urge-cull-of-cormorants-for-eating-too-many-fish-554677.html

Having said this if these people broke the law they should be punished.

Mr. Mifsud Bonnici,
If you are so concerned about our agriculture produce....you and your oirganisation should refrain from showering lead on our fields, and indirectly into our food. This is surely incomparable to the "damage" alleged to the house sparrows.
But then for some its always..."Hunting uber ales!"

Please bird life try to do something positive encourage hunter to go clay pigeon shooting . I am a hunter but can't afford to go once every weekend . Instead of wasting money on propaganda do something positive .
Charles Vella

All I can see are two men on a dinghy, where is the bird or the land if they were less then 3 kilometers from the coast? They could be drug traffickers or even illegal immigrants who is to say

@ alex ellul

Do you know what a great cormorant looks like any way? Anyway mr. Ellul i prefer being a pest rather than a lying member of birdlife.

So if all protected birds shot here in malta are rare or very rare so so how do these rarirties add up to the millions of birds shot each year as claimed in the recent past by birdlife?

What I admire in birdlife malta is the way in which they have strived to take common people's intelligence for a ride for all these years. prosit birdlife keep it up.

J Borg.

"When these birds are anywhere near to become "PESTS" in Malta, then I'm sure they will no longer be protected.."

Apply your reasoning to the House sparrow in Malta. The damage it causes to agriculture is common knowledge. It is far from being rare, yet this bird is protected locally.

Can you deny this?

Are you also stating that if the cormorant "will no longer be protected" then it would be OK to shoot it.

For your information this bird has absolutely no culinary value. It is shot, poisoned or gassed overseas since it is considered to be a pest.

BirdLife have not used the term "RARE" in the case of the Cormorant as they always do whenever any protected bird is shot.

They also referred to the IUCN listing when referring to the recovery of an injured Stone Curlew last week.

It seems they have finally realized that scientific data cannot be contradicted or invented!

Can anyone please explain why the Great Cormorant has been classed as a protected bird here in Malta when other countries are contemplating the classification of this bird as a pest.

How come this time Birdlife didn't say RARE bird shot ?!!!!!
"Many poachers have been recorded shooting at protected birds, even in bird sanctuaries and in front of police." who's not familiar with the local hunting scenario is made to believe that it's some mega confusion out of of control and free for all !!!!! and I can assure eveyone one that it's no free for all,cause enforcement does exist,believe me !!

When these birds are anywhere near to become "PESTS" in Malta, then I'm sure they will no longer be protected....until then I would appreciate to have the chance to see one alive in Malta.
The current SERIOUS PESTS that we have here are hunters that shoot anywhere, anytime and anything.
I believe there's a particular reason to ban hunting close to the coast......obviously some pests couldn't care more.
However there are also some honourable pests ..... the ones that pester you directly every five years .... yet in the meantime they chatter away pompously ...... but effectively do nothing!

Here you are, Alex Ellul and Co.

The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) and NABU Baden-Württemberg call for public protest!
As a fish-eating bird the Cormorant has had a hard time in Germany for many years. In the meantime it has been permitted to shoot the species in almost all federal German states; it is now planned to destroy its colonies during the breeding season. The Freiburg local authority, in the southwest of Germany, has made the first move in this direction. It plans to destroy the largest Cormorant colony on the German shore of Lake Constance!

Want some more?

Cottbus. Conservationists raise the alarm. In the nature reserve Peitzer Teiche (a pond complex in the Spree-Neisse Rural District) a strictly protected Pygmy Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygmaeus) has been shot by hunters. As the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) reports, the rare bird was found dead near Peitz in mid-September; shortly after a hunting party had shot at Cormorants in the vicinity. State veterinary surgeons who examined the corpse have found several pieces of shot - evidence that the bird was indeed illegally killed. Pygmy Cormorants are a smaller relation of the Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) and rarely observed in Germany.

I'm usually against the hunters, but a Great Cormorant So What!

This article kept me thinking that this bird was like some Grand Migratory Bird that was endangered or something. Its not even pretty to look at, small wonder , the New Zealanders call it the Black shag!

I saw jcaurana's outburst, was going to comment about how silly he is, but it was I who was ignorant (and others who don't research before they argued), because after I googled this bird, I realized that he was flawlessly Right all the way .

Their Conservation status is Least Concern (IUCN 3.1).
And fisherman see them as competitors to their fish, therefore jcaurana is correct they are a pest and in the UK they issue licenses for hunters specifically to go and wipe them out !

I hate seagulls and pigeons or any bird that is very likely (i.e. common bird) to randomly crap on you and bring diseases & odd smells. If hunters killed those birds only I would have no problem with their hobby.

@Harry Borda: You wrote, I quote: "but i judge this year as one which nearly all hunters complied with the law". You must be living in cuckoo-land, pardon the pun, but, of course, without live cuckoos.

With regard to all those who are saying that this cormorant is very common in Europe: In Malta it is very rare, like many other birds, since hunters blast them all out of the sky before they reach land. Otherwise, how come these are so common but we never see one? The proof of the pudding is ..........

@jcaruana: Can you please clarify whom are you referring as pests please? Is it the birds or their sworn enemies?

I still remember a particular book from my school days, “Once a Week Comprehension”. A child’s performance was reinforced by a weekly comprehension. Is Birdlife Malta’s campaigning following this tact? Since an incident on Saturday is released for the media on Wednesday, had the weekly case been exhausted last week? The “hard work” and “exposure” shows all the good intention of repetitive manipulation of public stigma.

Shooting of locally protected species is to be unreservedly condemned, irrespective of the suitability of laws. Nonetheless, one definitely feels that in this case, what’s good for the goose isn’t good for the gander since this very same species is regularly culled within the EU itself;

“In the UK each year some licenses are issued to shoot specified numbers of cormorants in order to help reduce predation” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_cormorant

This species’ numbers have experienced such a drastic increase in particular places that at present discussions are underway to expand the areas within the EU where it may be culled.

Whilst reiterating condemnation of any form of illegal shooting, it’s a pity that a handful of individuals persist, in the know that these isolated cases will end up fomented to satisfy Birdlife Malta’s mudslinging agendas.

@ J Caruana - thank for illustrating to us the Maltese hunters' stubborn mentality: you try to find every excuse to justify your bloodthirst.

Without trying to justify the shooting, as in Malta this bird is protected, in Germany this bird is a pest, and the major in North Germany ordered hunters to shoot these birds to protect the fish from a lake, so why is it that we have to be ashamed if one bird is shot?

BIG DEAL !. They are a pest not only in Europe but all over the world anyway besides this photos proves nothing , and if birdlife is trying to make us believe that hunters go hunting on dinghies that size please pull the other..... ( I meant leg not trigger )

PS : PLEASE start reporting the DESTRUCTION of ancient carob trees ( HUNDREDS OF YEARS OLD )and other indigenous trees at the same frequency, why the killing of a very COMMON cormorant ( few years old ) makes headlines and the rape and destruction of our RARE countryside goes on and on unnoticed. AND PLEASE DONT TELL TWO WRONGS DONT MAKE ONE RIGHT HEARD THAT TOO MANY TIMES.

Hunting was used in prehistoric times to survive. Nowadays they call it a sport. I call clay pigeon is a sport and not hunting on birds that are there for all human beings to appraise. Hunting should be abolished all year round. If the so called hunters want to practice their sport, they should take clay pigeon, and maybe one day someone of them can get us a gold olympic medal and not shame and emberrassment. Leave the birds in their own freedom and let us and our children enjoy them.

Nothing describes better this problem in Malta as big shame on the authorities concerned for doing nothing to curb poaching - in face of the continuous extermination of different bird species.

The question is, when is the government going to stop this nonsense? It is obvious that these hooligans will stop at nothing regardless of the law and the fines imposed for breaking them. If these guys are caught they should be thrown in jail for six months or more. Maybe then they will get the message. Perhaps hunters will only get the message if the government were to ban hunting outright.

What is the government waiting for? Since we are dealing with young children ban hunting once and for all. End of story

Come on Birdlife! If there ever was a time when you were to complain, this year surely wasn't one of them. I am not saying there were no irregularities but i judge this year as one which nearly all hunters complied with the law. It seems that everytime you see the subject of hunting is not splashed on every newspaper front, up you come up with a new story.