Below is a link to an article in todays paper. Seagulls have eaten around a million Columbia river upriver bright smolts. It say that lethal control has been abandoned. I don't understand. They would rather sit and watch $24,000 wasted and one third of our future fish run destroyed in 2 weeks. I am sure there are plenty people who would volunteer to destroy those garbage birds.

http://www.theolympian.com/home/specialsections/Outdoors/20020628/4833.shtml

I agree something needs done.

Lets start up a gull season emergency management program.

Anyone got a good 10ga I figure a few blasts should do.

I don't know how this hatchery is set up but it angers me that they allow this to happen. That many smolts lost translates into alot of lost dollars that would be generated by those who fish for them. I don't understand why the fisheries did not ask for volunteers to install netting over the ponds if that is what is needed. I would definately help in some way to prevent this from happening to our hatcheries if asked. With the popularity of some of the message boards this is a good avenue to get help from those who enjoy the sport in one way or another.

How could you hurt those poor animals?
I'm a vegan.

Enter *pump action* sound effect here.

FJ...out.

Shoot all you want,but don't get caught. If you think fishing out of season laws are tough wait until you shoot a sea gull and get caught. Just a word of advice.

I'd love to come and help but i have an osprey problem i'm dealing with, gotta go he's back.

Nickel plated Remington 870 20" bbl.& high brass #2's nuf said....c/22

I used to work at puget sound navel shipyard as a nuke.I got involved with the nuclear refueling of the california.The sea gulls used to nest on top of the refueling houses that sit atop the reactors.The roofs open and close to facilitatate the fuel rod removal.The goverment would shut the job down,hire some sort of specialist to come in and remove the stinking sea gull nest.It would take a couple of days generally.

Heard of a rigger that accidently ran a coworker over with a piece of heavy equipment,no problem.The same rigger ran over a seagull years later and lost his job.

Heard a story from an old game warden around hear.He was out patrolling the north shore of the hood canal.He rounded a corner,looking for clam diggers just in time to see a guy throwing a sea gull into his trunk.I guess he stopped the guy and asked to see in his trunk.Inside of his trunk were 4 or 5 dead sea gulls.Aperentally the guy had come up hear from down south and was looking for work.He had a wife and a couple of kids camped out there at one of the camp grounds and was feeding them with sea gulls.The gamey felt sorry for the guy and gave him a warning and let him know that sea gulls were peotected.Out of curiosity he asked what a sea rat taste likes?The poor bloke said " kinda a cross between bald eagle and spotted owl"

Very often when trolling herring, a gull will get hooked up trying to steal your bait. We like to run 'em down to about 150 feet for 3 to 5 minutes. Makes it a lot easier to unhook 'em.

I know a game warden... He was driving home this one time... Here's what happened:

He was driving home, and saw a man throw a dead seagull in his trunk. The game warden pulled over and asked to inspect the trunk. Upon inspection, the warden found 5 dead seagulls.

The mans excuse? "Well, I'm not very wealthy at the moment, I lost my job and am in search of another... These seagulls are feeding my wife and kids."

The game warden decided to let him go at the time, mostly because the sympothy he felt for the poor mans children. Before leaving, however, he asked, "So what do they taste like?"

"Well sir, they are kind of a mix between bald eagle and spotted owl."

Have fun

Curtis

Is there an echo in here?

Didja ever notice that when you're fishing in the Tillamook area it's a major production to keep the gulls off your bait? In Washington, the gulls don't seem interested. What's with that? It's the same bird....

BTW, there are many types of gulls, but here is no such bird as a seagull.

And why would these "rats with wings" be protected? It's not like there is a shortage of them.

Just feed them alka seltzer
Devine

I think it's because of a plague of locusts or something like that. They saved Utah to make it a safe place for Karl Malone and John Stockton. Those two are about done (it's about time isn't it?), so they may reconsider.

I believe that they are protected cuz they consume lottsa garbage and aren't too discriminating about what kind they eat thus keeping many areas cleaner than if they weren't around.

Here is sompthin that may piss all of you off a little.

Back in 98 and 99 I worked for Department Of Defense Police at Naval Station Bremerton. Well the DOD contracted from DNR to controll the bird population on the Shipyard as the birds nested on the buildings and moth balled ships and submarines. The birds were not liked as they pooped all over the place.

These birds were mostly sea gulls and cormerants with many blue herrons pidgeons and canadian geese also. Anyways DNR had a guy thats sole job was to kill these birds he shot them and poisened them. The only rule was that he couldnt kill birds of prey such as hawks and eagles.

He also killed tens of sea otters as they were deemed a problem because they ate their seafood meals inside the boat houses and they pooped all over the place. These otters were trapped and shot.

This is the Federal Government paying the state to kill protected threatened and endangered birds and animals on federal property because they made a mess.

But yet they cant kill a bunch of sea gulls for decimateing endangered fish?

I believe those otters would actually be river otters - not sea otters. The river otters around here are getting to be a real stinky nusance. They have infested most of the marinas. They live in the rip-rap and can get into most any boat and ice chest. If you have salmon on your boat, they will do whatever it takes to steal it.

hey i didnt know that was posted lol!! sorry guys!! Especially sorry to the guy who already posted it!