Seagulls, why cant we hunt them?

jethunter said:
There used to be a mink farm here that had problems with seagulls, either the mink carcasses or the food I don't know, but there were literally tens of thousands of seagulls infesting that 10 acre farm yard. it was close to town, actually in the city limits i think, and the birds were a nuisance to the farm and also the entire city of Wetaskiwin.

The farm owners used to get a 1-day permit to shoot nuisance seagulls. 20-30 shotgunners would descend and all hell would break loose for half an hour or so and there would be hardly any seagulls around for another year.

That was 30-40 years ago. Times have changed.
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There was a guy that had a permit to do likewise at the Maple Landfill site North of Toronto on a regular basis up until its closure a few years ago. I forget exactly home many he could shoot, but it must have been good fun.
 
I will tell you why you can't hunt Seagulls: Because they are amazing!

I guess it is in vogue to hate them - maybe because they are so multitudinous - but they really are a fascinating bird. Good looking too. Most people don't get to see them from above while in flight, but with their wings extended, the gray pattern on top (of their wings) is spectacular.
 
Seagulls can be shot under permit if they are posing a danger. I know two fellows with such permits. One has a float plane and since they pose a danger to him on the river behind his house by interfering with the safe operation of his plane he applied for and received a permit to kill them. The other used to be employed by the airport in North Bay,Ont. the city landfill at that time was right next to the airport and the gulls posed a danger to the planes. Though he could legally shoot them and at times he did, most times he went after them with some kind of hawk or falcon he had trained for the job. It was cool to watch.
 
the spank said:
Seagulls can be shot under permit if they are posing a danger. I know two fellows with such permits. One has a float plane and since they pose a danger to him on the river behind his house by interfering with the safe operation of his plane he applied for and received a permit to kill them. The other used to be employed by the airport in North Bay,Ont. the city landfill at that time was right next to the airport and the gulls posed a danger to the planes. Though he could legally shoot them and at times he did, most times he went after them with some kind of hawk or falcon he had trained for the job. It was cool to watch.
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I want a hawk! damit!
 
blasted_saber said:
Actually you're quite backwards on the fish populations. WE decimated the fish stocks, leading to surge of baitfish, which in turn led to a surge of cormorants.
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Not sure if you are saying the cormorants are blameless and should be left alone, but I'm talking about inland lakes with no commercial fisheries. Certainly fish populations in these lakes have come under pressure from shoreline development and pollution, but to say that we decimated them is patently false. Of course you are free to lay the blame where it makes you feel warm & fuzzy, however that doesn't change the fact that the cormorants could use a serious culling.
 
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Oh look! a seagull riding Eugene Whelan.

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wgamble89 said:
One reason is because there are several species that look alike but some are in low numbers, thus making it hard to tell the difference between one that is endangered and one that is not. The average joe would go out and could be blasting a bird that there are only hundreds of left in the world.
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You got it.
In Ontario you need a permit to use a shotgun as a noise maker to scare the damn things off.
 
When we (people) have an effect on wildlife, wether diminishing their numbers, or increasing, we then have a responsibility to manage the species through controls. The seagull population has exploded due to our presence in their territory which in turn has serious effects on the whole ecosystem. This is true for many many forms of wildlife. If we cause a species to become endangered, we protect it, and most times, when we cause a situation where there is an abnormal and detrimental increase in the population of a species we should also make an attempt to reduce those numbers to a more balanced level.


Some of the reasons to not hunt seagulls in here are just silly, same goes for hunting them. Remain objective and do not use emotion when considering such things. Such as "they are pretty from above", and countless other species we harvest aren't? Lol
 
Canada Geese can be hunted, and they've reached pest like populations in Southern Ontario, like deer, coyotes, black bear, etc.
 
blasted_saber said:
What critical role do wasps and hornets play?
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They are apex insect predators, that eat plant eating insects. From wiki: Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their numbers, or natural biocontrol. Parasitic wasps are increasingly used in agricultural pest control as they prey mostly on pest insects and have little impact on crops.

Plus, some are pollinators, an insect activity that allows us to eat. Almost every agricultural plant, from apples, to cucumber, to coffee and almost everything else relies on insect pollination to produce a reasonable crop.
 
Waterloomike said:
Aren't they pollinators?
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They will eat deer flies which gives them a thumbs up in my books. As a kid there was a $50 fine (that was a long time ago when that was a lot of money) in Quebec for shooting a sea gull. The old man told me it was because they kept the St Lawrence cleaned up.
 
The seagull is the Utah state bird because of a miraculous appearance of seagulls in the early Mormon days where they showed up to save the Mormon crops from a grasshopper infestation.
 
Bland said:
They will eat deer flies which gives them a thumbs up in my books. As a kid there was a $50 fine (that was a long time ago when that was a lot of money) in Quebec for shooting a sea gull. The old man told me it was because they kept the St Lawrence cleaned up.
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It's a $500 fine in toronto for killing one with a baseball.

I didn't know they ate deer flies. that is good.
 
Some benefit aside, seagull (and cormorant) populations are excessive.

A "hot barrel" seagull hunt would be fun: ;)

Hide in a dumpster in your local landfill, use green garbage bags for camo wear, put out KFC and McDonald's Happy Meal boxes for decoys.
You could even bait with french fries and Timbits.
 
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