They love to fly across the water. They love to be photographed. Yet they love to annoy tourists with bill-dodgery and food theft. There have been stories of them hopping on tables at restaurants, eating food scraps and flying off when the waiter sees them. Or in one case when one knocks a matjes sandwich out of the hand of a tourist and flies off with the fish. Or in the case where some fly onto the balcony, eyeing the food to be eaten on the table. These are birds on a wire, ready to steal, eat, broot and shit!
If there is one stereotype of the Baltic and North Sea, they are laden with seagulls. Black-headed, white-headed, Common, and Laughing. Bonaparte, Slender-billed, Franklin and terns. When walking along the promenade or the beach, one will see these seagulls everywhere. They can crave for fame when photographers can take their pictures. Yet when they annoy the tourists by stealing their food, they can become the embodiment of the famous expression “Damn Seagulls!” as you can see on some apparel, such as baseball caps, in America.
The ”Seagull Invasion” has gotten bad to a point that one community is taking some drastic measures. In Sonderburg, located on the north side of Flensburg Fjord, 30 km NE of Flensburg, a law was passed recently which encourages business and homeowners to shoot them, provided that you have an official shooting permit.
According to their city website, the process of culling the seagulls can be done in four different ways, provided that the deadline is kept. That means:
From February 1 to April 15, one can shoot the seagulls on site
From April 1 to July 31, one can find and destroy their nests and eggs
From April 16 to August 31, one can kill the young birds on site.
On top of that, one can remove the seagull nests from houses and businesses, and it is not allowed to build feeding stations and houses to accommodate the birds. Information on the new law can be found in the Sonderburg City Council website:
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While culling seagulls may be considered an effective way to reduce the number to a minimum, there are some setbacks one has to consider, which include the following:
- High risk of personal injury if shot by accident while shooting away a seagull
- Danger of pushing certain species of seagulls to a point of extinction
- Sea gulls usually pass through towns and beaches while traveling to their place where their young is raised in the spring, and south for the winter during the fall months.
Aalborg in Denmark has had the policies of shooting seagulls for over 20 years. Yet due to the aforementioned concerns, the city council recently voted in favor of discontinuing the shooting policy effective in 2026, in an attempt to recover the population. Yet the idea of culling the population of seagulls in Sonderburg will most likely brandish a debate on the German side, for seagulls can be nice birds to look at, but they can be a nuisance when it comes to food.
Therefore, a questionnaire on what to do with the seagull population: Should we have something like this on our beaches and in communities along the seas? Click on the link and cast your vote. The results will be presented on April 30th in the Files.
Link to Questionnaire: https://strawpoll.com/ajnEO9zw0ZW
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Many thanks for your help in this questionnaire and wishing you all the best for the upcoming season on the beach. 🙂
THE FLENSBURG FILES 