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Pity the Seagull by Mary Wellesley 24 August. London Review of Books blog

Northumbria police have launched an investigation after a photo was posted on Facebook of a man apparently strangling a seagull. Councillors in seaside towns are considering using drones to kill seagull chicks in their nests. Although the numbers of most gull species in the UK are in decline, they have an ‘increasing presence in urban areas’. The RSPCA is looking into reports that people in Cornwall are attacking gulls with fishing line. Meanwhile the birds have been accused of attacking people and killing pets, and in Namibia they’ve been spotted pecking out the eyes of baby seals, as if they weren’t already hated enough.

But disliking seagulls is nothing new. The speaker of the The Seafarer regrets that he has only the calls of the sea­mew (the Old English word for seagull) for entertainment instead of mead­drinking: ‘mæw singende fore medodrince’. In another Old English poem, Andreas, seagulls aren’t only a disappointing beersurrogate but a sinister omen: one circles over St Andrew’s boat, greedy for carrion (‘wælgifre’). Protestantism did further damage to the gull’s reputation. One of the unclean birds listed in Deuteronomy Chapter 14 appears as larum in the Vulgate. English translators weren’t sure what to make of it. The Wycliffite Bible hedged its bets and called the bird a ‘lare’. William Tyndale translated it as ‘cuckow’. But the Geneva Bible went for ‘seagull’. Henry Ainsworth, in his 1627 Annotations on the Bible, called it ‘a bird of a greedy and ravenous kind’. Perhaps influenced by the Geneva Bible, the 17th­century physician Tobias Venner advised against eating the bird. In his 1620 guide to living a long life, Via Recta ad Vitam Longam, Venner wrote: ‘The seagull is to be rejected as all other kinds of flesh of a fishy savour: for he is of a very ill juice, and is not only unpleasant, but also very offensive to the stomach.’ Venner may not be the most reliable guide: in a treatise on tobacco smoke, he recommended smoking as an aid to digestion and protection against pestilent airs. And John Stafford, the Bishop of Bath and Wells (d.1452), would have disagreed, as he served seagull at a feast he held in September 1425, as well as roasted venison, curlews and swan.

Depictions of seagulls in medieval and early modern art are rare. In the decorative margin of an early 14th century manuscript produced in Venice, now housed in the Bodleian Library, there is an image of a seagull. A Saracen appears to be shooting at it with a bow and arrow. The word ‘gull’ doesn’t appear in English until the late medieval period, and its origins are unclear. It’s probably a loan­word from the Cornish guilan or Welsh gŵylan. But in the early modern period, the seagull suffered from its homonyms, particular the verb meaning ‘to deceive’. Whether or not the noun and the verb derive from a common root, they were linked in the minds of some lexicographers, including Dr Johnson.  The hate may have a long history, but it hasn’t been universal. In Dafydd ap Gwylim’s 14th­century Welsh poem Yr Wylan the seagull is an emissary of love, which the poet begs to carry a message to his red­haired beloved (a more effective romantic gesture than shooting one and presenting its corpse as a gift, as Konstanin does in Chekhov’s play). So pity the seagull: not only a modern pariah, but disdained by Protestants, loathed by the Anglo­Saxons, shot at by Saracens and eaten by bishops.

More News

A study by scientists in Spain evaluating the negative effect of seagull fecal phosphorus on coastal waters, lagoons and saltwater marshland.  Phosphorus in seagull colonies and the effect on the habitats. The case of yellow-legged gulls (Larus michahellis) in the Atlantic Islands National Park (Galicia-NW Spain)

The researchers and their institutions:

L. Otero^a, b, , , Tejada^a, Martín-Pastor^c,  De La Peña^a, O. Ferreira^d,  Pérez-Alberti^e

^aDepartamento de Edafoloxía e Química Agrícola, Facultade de Bioloxía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain

^bDepartamento de Tecnología de Ciencia de los Alimentos y Biotecnología. Universidad Politécnica Nacional, Quito, Ecuador

^cRede de Infraestruturas de Apoio á Investigación e ao Desenvolvemento Tecnolóxico (RIAIDT), Edificio Cactus, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain

^dDepartamento de Ciência do Solo, Universidade de São Paulo, 13418-900 Piracicaba, SP, Brazil

^eDepartamento de Xeografía, Facultade de Xeografía e Historia, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Highlights

• P concentration in soils did not vary in either the short or long term.
• Sandy soils of the seagull colonies in the Cies Islands are saturated with P
• Increased P concentration in soil colonies is an irreversible process
• New seagull colonies can cause negative effects on already threatened habitats

Abstract

During the period 1980–2000, the yellow-legged gull population underwent exponential growth due to an increase in the availability of anthropogenic food resources. The aim of this study was to highlight the effect of the gull colonies on the P soil cycle and the associated effects on coastal ecosystems. Samples of soil, water and faecal material were collected in a colony of yellow-legged gulls (Cíes Islands) and in a control area. Four sampling plots were installed in the study areas, and samples were collected in summer and winter in 1997 and 2011. Sample analysis included soil characterization and determination of the total P content (TP), bioavailable-P and fractionated-P forms in the soils and faecal material. The ³¹P NMR technique was also used to determine organic P forms. Clear differences between the gull colony soils and the control soil were observed. The TP was 3 times higher in the gull colony soil, and the bioavailable P was 30 times higher than in the control soil. The P forms present at highest concentrations in the faecal material (P-apatite, P-residual and P-humic acid) were also present at high concentrations in the colony soil. The absence of any seasonal or annual differences in P concentration indicates that the P has remained stable in the soil over time, regardless of the changes in the gull population density. The degree of P saturation indicated that soils are saturated with P due to the low concentration of Fe/Al-hydroxides, which is consistent with a high P concentration in the run-off from the colonies. The P output from the colony soils to coastal waters may cause eutrophication of a nearby lagoon and the disappearance of a Zostera marina seagrass meadow. Similarly, the enrichment of P concentration in dune system of Muxieiro may induce irreversible changes in the plant communities.