Managing wildlife - the California Gull problem

Yes, California Gulls exist along our Pacifica coast as well. 

Silicon Valley Mercury News/Paul Rogers, 7/20/13.  "Bay Area sea gull population explodes, bringing flocks of problems."

You talking about me?

Same CA Gull, different states of life

"....  In an alarming trend that has scientists scrambling for answers, the bay's population of California Gulls -- squawking, flapping white-and-gray birds that most people associate with the beach -- has exploded from 24 birds in 1980 to more than 53,000 today. In the last two years alone, their numbers soared 41 percent, making the Bay Area home to the second-largest population of California Gulls in the world, behind only Utah's Great Salt Lake

....  Nobody knows how to stop the population boom. And the problems are mounting: The gulls are increasingly colliding with airplanes, even causing several aborted takeoffs and landings at Bay Area airports. They're swarming landfills, divebombing schools and neighborhoods and gobbling up shorebirds that public agencies have worked for years to bring back from near extinction.

Scientists say the gulls have become a serious threat to the largest wetlands restoration on the West Coast, the effort to restore 15,100 acres of former Cargill industrial salt ponds in the South Bay back to tidal marshes. A central goal of that project, which already has cost taxpayers more than $300 million, is to bring back endangered species."  Read article,  includes a 2:14 embedded video.

Related - National Geographic, "California Gull", Stages of life illustration from this article.  Types of Gulls.   Squidoo, "Getting to know the glaucous-winged gull family," frontal photograph from this article.

Posted by Kathy Meeh