ECO's first campaign in Summer 1992 was the ECO Says "Shoot Only Photos" campaign. The pun of this motto is that birds should not be shot down, people should shoot photos instead and take these home with them for the memory.

Besides rather than hosting a cemetry of balsamised (stuffed) birds in our houses it makes more sense to hang photos of birds.

The ornithology of the Maltese Islands is dominated by seasonal migrations. About 360 species have been recorded. Of these approximately 13 are resident, 5 are summer visitors, 52 are winter visitors, 112 are more or less regular migrants and 178 are rare and irregular migrants or vagrants. Some species which breed in the islands occur also as migrants.

The main factors which cause threat may be summed up as human interference, mainly bird shooting and trapping which is carried out intensively, and disturbance and loss of habitat.

In view of these factors together with the density of human population vis-a-vis the surface area of the Islands, it is not surprising that many breeding species are on the decline.

In Malta there is a strong lobby as much against hunting as in its favour.

Besides all the posters and meetings organised by ECO to lobby against hunting, ECO decided to study public opinion in great detail.

 A study conducted with a total of 841 Maltese and Gozitans in 23 different villages and towns revealed that 48% of respondents think that hunting regulations are not severe enough. 18% have no opinion on the subject, whereas only 9% think that they are too strict. 24% think that they are adequate.

With regards to the abolition of hunting, 70% of respondents are against while 23% are in favour.

Consequently it became evident that besides educating people, the lobby should focus on stricter regulations rather than on the abolition. In fact two years later new stricter hunting regulations came in force amidst the violent pro-hunting lobby. Unfortunately, in 1997, a change in government led to a change in regulations to what they were before.