THE National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) says a request from Portland environmentalists for a stay on bird shooting in that parish will be considered for next year as the petition got to them too late.

“A request did come to us calling for a cessation of all bird shooting in Portland… but it has come too late. It should have been sent in much earlier,” head of the NEPA, Franklyn McDonald, told the Observer last week.

“It will be considered by NEPA when we are going through the process of deciding if there will be a bird season, but our decision will be made based on scientific investigations on the bird population in the area and consultation with the concerned stakeholders,” he said.

The Portland Environment Protection Association (PEPA) wrote to the NEPA last week seeking a moratorium on bird shooting in the parish and based their request on:

* the recent slaughter of protected and endangered bird species in Portland;

* the absence of adequate scientific data to determine the health of the existing game bird population; and

* the outcry of citizens of the parish against the danger, noise and loss of tourism business due to bird shooting.

“There has always been public protest against it because it affects a lot of people,” said director of PEPA, Marguerite Gauron. “One hotelier has told me that during bird shooting time, she can’t sell any bird watching tours because the tourists refuse to go in the same areas with the shooters.”

Gauron said that sometimes the shooters go near to the hotels and the guests panic when they hear the shots because they are aware of Jamaica’s reputation for violence.

She explained that church services and the farming communities were disturbed by the bird shooters.

“They scare the farmers’ livestocks and tear down their fences, she said. “Persons who want to sleep late on a weekend can’t do so because of the noise.”

PEPA represents 30 community groups in Portland and holds bi-monthly meetings. The group has been opposing bird shooting for about 10 of its 14 years, Gauron said.

A sport for many years, especially among the more affluent in the society, bird shooting was regulated by NEPA to better manage the bird population that has been reduced due to the loss of habitat and population.

During the season, shooting is only allowed on Saturdays and Sundays and within specified hours. On Saturday there is a morning shoot, which starts at sunrise and ends at 9:00 am and in the afternoon, shooting starts at 2:30 pm and ends at sunset. The Sunday shoot hours are sunrise to 9:00 am.

According to McDonald, scientific surveys are carried out each year to determine the bird population before a decision is taken to allow bird shooting that year. The season is also carefully monitored, he said, to ensure that hunters are conforming to gaming rules.

“For example, this morning an attorney-at-law, Maxim Clarke, was fined $5,000 in St James for shooting seven birds above the legal bag limit,” McDonald said.

Each shooter is allowed 20 birds per shoot. Game birds are the Long-tailed Pea Dove (Paloma), the White-wing and the White Crowned Pigeon (Bald Pate). No bag should have more than 15 Bald Pates. NEPA requires that hunters stay within the bag limit and that they provide reports on the numbers of birds taken at each shoot.

“It is part of our procedure that in November we will put out a report on how the season went,” explained McDonald. “By next spring, we will do an estimate of the bird population and then we entertain proposals before deciding if we will have a season,” McDonald said.

For any breech, NEPA officers and wardens have the authority to take the offender to a police station, where the person can be charged and taken before the courts.

The offender can be fined a maximum of $100,000 for any offence under the Wild Life Protection Act.

According to the NEPA boss, bird conservation experts from the University of the West Indies and Birdlife Jamaica were also involved in the surveys and overall process.

The NEPA officers and wardens are authorised to check if all hunters are licensed. They check the bags to see how many birds have been shot and that only game birds are hunted, ensure that hunters are not shooting before or past the time allocated for shooting and that they are not hunting in any protected area.

Bird shooting season opened last month and will continue until September 23.