shooting ring billed gulls(what most people on the bald prairie call sea guls)

C

crout

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
152   0   0
Location
Rosemary, AB
so i come from a farming community and have always grown up around gulls, hundreds of gulls. they always pop up during cultivation or harvesting time, flood irrigating, or when i'm out shooting gophers:)

i just talked to my brother this afternoon and he said they are legal to shoot and they are classified as a pest now. i've done my research and can't seem to find any amendments to the migratory bird act to alow for shooting of gulls(ring billed gulls). has anyone else heard anything like this?

to me gulls are a nuisance and not much of a pest because they do alot of good for most farmers, so i was just a little puzzled.
 
All gull species are protected under the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act. If there's been an amendment to the Act or Regulations regarding shooting gulls, I'm not aware of it but it should be easy enough to find.
 
The only person I've met who could legally shoot gulls was a fish farm operator with a special permit to kill one per week. He hung the carcass on the walkway over the net pens as a "warning" and it seemed to work. The CO's were monitoring the gull shooting, so no more than one per week were killed.
 
A word of advice to those who have to deal with sh*thawks on a regular basis (and yeah, I can appreciate just how much of a nuisance they are), DFO does prosecute folks for shooting them. Especially if they're of a species considered to be at risk or endangered.
 
Longwalker said:
The only person I've met who could legally shoot gulls was a fish farm operator with a special permit to kill one per week. He hung the carcass on the walkway over the net pens as a "warning" and it seemed to work. The CO's were monitoring the gull shooting, so no more than one per week were killed.
Click to expand...

Shoot them around airports as well.

The prairie gulls, Franklins, ring billed, etc are very benificial to agriculture by eating insect pests and the like. You would have to be an ignorant fool to purposefully shoot these birds.

On the other hand many endangered bird species are threatened by gull depredation...specifically herring gull depredation. Efforts to control hering gull to save vulnerable shore bird species has been met with mixed results. IMO herring gulls should have some type of conrtol measuer imposed on them.

Brittan has put these birds on the open list as well as Canada geese as the nation is overrun with them.
 
beretta boy said:
Double crested Cormorant are out-competing the gulls around here for nest habitat. But so far, the gulls haven't had any lack of feed problems ... too many land-fill sites and MacDonalds. !
Click to expand...

Yep, the growing numbers of cormorants is becoming a serious problem. They're hanging around the river mouths here in NL, feasting on sea run trout and salmon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom