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Birds behaving badly, Ocean City cracks down to protect visitors, food from seagulls

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - On a hot beach day, Barbara Malik, 36, took a break with her three sons along the boardwalk for a late-afternoon snack.

Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian says the city will begin enforcing its ban on feeding seagulls.
Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian says the city will begin enforcing its ban on feeding seagulls.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - On a hot beach day, Barbara Malik, 36, took a break with her three sons along the boardwalk for a late-afternoon snack.

A few bites into their soft pretzels and fries, six seagulls swarmed in from the beach. The birds paused just inches above their heads. They squawked, and they tried - unsuccessfully - to snag a meal.

"We're not even feeding them," said Malik, of Williamstown. "If you try to feed them, they probably hover over more - but they're still hovering over us even now."

It's a common scene up and down the Jersey Shore. Birds behaving badly.

Slices of pizza, sandwiches, potato chips, and, yes, even macaroni and cheese, snatched from beachgoers. The seagulls, mostly the laughing gull species, invade shops when they are not perched atop benches or awnings of boardwalk businesses.

This summer has brought even more complaints.

"Literally, you have people screaming and running," said Susan Viscomi, owner of the boardwalk shop Cone Appetit. "Some people will just be walking, minding their own business, and right behind their heads is a seagull."

In Ocean City, law enforcement is cracking down - on the humans. People who intentionally feed the gulls, which causes the creatures to flock and become more aggressive, will face a fine and potential jail time.

Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian posted to the city's website a July 15 notice that the loose enforcement of a 2006 law banning the feeding of wildlife will now really result in a fine up to $500 and 90 days in prison.

"The Ocean City Police Department in recent years has taken a 'be nice, be kind' approach when it comes to minor infractions related to the beach and boardwalk. They try to issue only warnings. That will change," he wrote.

A recorded reminder from Ocean City Chief of Police Chad Callahan blares over boardwalk loudspeakers several times an hour. As of Friday, the city had not yet issued any summonses.

Wes Kazmarck, the president of the Boardwalk Merchants Association, said it's difficult to gauge whether gull behavior has gotten worse. He said the main reason for the ban is the well-being of visitors and residents.

"I don't think our tourists understand sometimes how unsafe it is for them to feed the seagulls," Kazmarck said. "It's for their own safety and protection."

Kazmarck, the owner of the Surf Mall on the boardwalk, said there had been some "isolated incidents" where seagulls would swoop down low and into his building, lured by the lights, but it's not a regular event.

"When it happens, it's horrible," he said.

Along the southern coast of New Jersey there are large populations of laughing gulls in the back bays, said David La Puma, the director of New Jersey Audubon's Cape May Bird Observatory.

Gulls are "phenomenal" adapters, he said, and some species thrive off humans for food, especially in concentrated areas. La Puma said the birds don't necessarily attack people, but they will try to grab food.

A strictly enforced policy like Ocean City's will remove one food source, and minimize the snack options for the birds, he said.

"If you don't feed them, there's going to be less of that human-animal interaction," he said. "They have no reason to come and hang out with humans; the only reason is because of the food opportunity."

Shane Fawley, a manager at Manco & Manco Pizza, said he's noticed the gulls becoming more aggressive over the years, but it's not always the fault of the people eating. He said he sees gulls taking food right out of customer's hands.

"I think that 90 percent of the time, it's not people feeding the seagulls; it's them taking the food from people," Fawley said. "I don't think the fine is completely necessary. The seagulls are just crazy."

Kazmarck said the Surf Mall, along with Chickie's & Pete's, have taken additional steps to ban the birds. The businesses have installed machines that replicate sounds of birds in distress to fend off the gulls.

But on some Shore days, the sounds of the boardwalk make the machine outside barely audible.

Chickie's & Pete's general manager Todd Dwyer said he has a sound machine, bird spikes on the roof that prevent them from landing, and a statue of a bird sitting on top of the stand.

"They're definitely more aggressive this year," he said. "With everything combined, it helps us a lot."

Dwyer said the seagulls were an issue everywhere up and down the coast. People have fed them over the years, he said, and it has to stop.

Norman Lawand, the owner of Curly's Fries on the boardwalk, said umbrellas and an awning help protect his customers while they dine outside. He also provides foil to cover the food.

"This year is no worse than the past," he said.

Farther down the coast, Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano said that while feeding wildlife is prohibited, the city is content with residents and visitors informing one another of the law.

Seagulls are smart, Troiano said, and they know to come back to an area that once had food. The length of the beach - it's sometimes up to 1,500 feet - in Wildwood also helps keep the gulls away from people and food, he added.

"Some guests don't realize that feeding the birds creates a problem," he said.

But Troiano said the gulls, considered "uninvited guests," do a good job of cleaning the beaches, in terms of swiping up remnants like fish carcasses and seaweed that come up from the ocean.

"It's been a problem since I was a little kid, and it will be a problem until long after I'm gone," he said of the birds.

Alicia Kowal, 49, of Egg Harbor Township, sat along the Ocean City boardwalk with her two daughters while seagulls eyed their snacks. The family frequently visits Ocean City. The gulls, Kowal said, have always been a problem.

And her children don't welcome the avian company.

"For me, it's worse" this year, said Kowal's daughter Ella, 11, holding mac and cheese that she had shielded from a bird. "And I like seagulls, I like all animals."

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