Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1544495
ON 20 April, Malta opens its spring hunting season for the European Turtle Dove again. The season opens earlier for quail. It only lasts until the be- ginning of May—a short period but dramatic for dove conserva- tion. Malta is the only country in the European Union that allows legal hunting during spring, giving no truce for migrating doves. Poaching does take place across the Mediterranean with the Ionian Islands, and Cyprus ranking high. Spain ranks high- est for numbers killed during the autumn hunt. The IUCN listed the turtle dove, as vulnerable in 2015. It is the only dove that leaves the continent of Europe to spend the winter in Sub-Saharan countries. It returns to south- ern and central Europe in April. Some keep going north. They may travel from the UK, Swe- den, or Russia to Ethiopia, Mau- ritania, Senegal or Mali, and back, if they survive the jour- ney. The Mediterranean region is for them a hotspot. The turtle dove carries reli- gious symbolic meaning and is mentioned in both Jewish and Christian scriptures. That sym- bolism dates back to ancient worship linked to seasonal cy- cles of nature and agriculture— particularly linked to grain harvesting, such as the wor- ship of Inanna, later to Astarte and even later to Demeter. The presence of the turtle doves' re- turn was celebrated as an epiph- any. It was marked by festivals; a calendar event. The remains of dove offerings were found at Tas-Silġ, to the godess Astarte, later Juno. A site that was lat- er used as a Byzantine Basilica. The migration of doves con- nected Sicily, Malta and Gozo, Tunisia and Libya through the temples dedicated to Astarte, later Aphrodite or Venus. Today, millions are shot in this same region alone. The conservation of tur- tle doves is deeply entangled with geopolitics due to their fly-routes. The efforts of one country become meaningless if neighbouring countries or those on their flyway refuse to join in similar efforts, such as Malta and its insistence on spring hunting, a deeply embed- ded cultural practice. Scientific conservation efforts must in- clude community conservation practices and cultural insights; people, land and birds. Hunters in Malta run their own breeding programme for turtle doves. Masculine love, dominion, and destruction dy- namics are ever present. Hunt- ing is performative of that as well. What does Aphrodite think about it? Real turtle dove conservation requires safe flyways and cor- ridors. This is not only a niche concern for ecologists. Humans require that as well. The ecology of the Mediterranean region is offering the opposite; escalation of violence and ongoing wars. A turn towards militarised bor- ders, psychologically and geo- politically. The Mediterranean is no longer connected through the turtle doves' flyway routes. It hasn't been for a long time. Since the enlightenment, the western mind has been inclined to think of an 'us' as separate to nature. Today's multitude of crises forces that thinking cen- tre stage. Perhaps, in the age of AI we must relearn on staying human, mindful of our depend- ence on natural resources, re- specting planetary boundaries. If we move to the moon, we still require food and that does not exempt us from protecting the earth and its natural cycles. While monotheism retained a fondness for the dove, white and domesticated, the turtle dove continues to disrupt vio- lent national identities—she re- mains wild, and not respecting borders. Turtle doves remain listed as vulnerable and there is a ques- tion if their populations will recover or eventually become listed as endangered. Humans, though belonging to the same biological species remain at war with each other, in endless cy- cles of violence. The Mediterranean basin is a death trap for people and birds alike. In 2025, an estimated 2,185 people died or went miss- ing while trying to cross the sea. That figure goes higher if one looks at deaths of people in wars and violent conflict in this same region. When nomadic cultures tran- sitioned to agrarian societies, new possibilities for humans emerged, as they are emerging now with new technologies. Ancient people had a reverence for doves, both wild and do- mestic. They provided symbolic and practical gifts, which in- cluded free fertiliser important for farming. Human fascination with migratory birds and turtle doves goes back in time—linked to divine whispers; we have for- gotten about it. Protecting turtle doves is ur- gent, as is urgent protecting the human rights charter, the institutions that uphold it and the politics and mechanics that make the charter a real political force in the world to overcome violent cycles, wars, genocides and ecocides today. 6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 ARPIL 2026 OPINION Mario Gerada The Mediterranean death trap for turtle doves and the region's soul Protecting turtle doves is urgent, as is urgent protecting the human rights charter, the institutions that uphold it and the politics and mechanics that make the charter a real political force in the world to overcome violent cycles, wars, genocides and ecocides today