Casey Alderson: Belle Cafe manager on the seagulls disrupting locals and tourists on Christchurch's New Regent Street

The hunt is on for ideas for shifting seagulls as a flock causes havoc on Christchurch's New Regent Street. 

The protected birds are over-running the tourism hotspot.

They're returning to nest after settling in the foundations of a demolished Armagh Street building. 

Belle Cafe manager Casey Alderson says the seagulls dive-bomb for people's scraps without fear.

"Small children don't freak them out that much, so they're not hesitant to swoop down in front of a small child and take whatever they have on their plates."

Alderson says after failed attempts to deter the birds, ideas would be helpful.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now apparently the seagulls have been talking to you about.
The seagulls are a major problem in christ Church, particularly
around New Region Street. They've been there for five years,
been nesting in the foundations of a nearby demolished building.
Now that's causing havoc for the local cafes and restaurants
because the birds dive bombing the customers and stealing food
off the tables and living their poop absolutely everywhere. Bell
Cafe is on New Regent Street and its manager Casey Alderson,

(00:22):
it's with us now, Hey, Casey, Hi, just sounds horrific.
Are they actually dive bombing the kids? Uh?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, basically, so if there's any food scraps anywhere, they
will immediately dive bomb and take whatever they can get.
But also small children don't freak them out that much,
so they're not hesitant to swoop down in front of
a small child and take whatever they have in front
of their play author.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
No, okay, So I mean, is this getting worse? Do
you think it's a trend of it getting worse or
is it a little bit like a mast season like
every now and again, just got a really bad year,
then it kind of goes back to normal.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
I believe that it's getting worse because the seagulls migrate
to the same place every year to nest, and so
because they've been in the area the last couple of years,
they just keep coming back and bringing you when else
with them.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Okay, now is it weird to you that the council
can do nothing about this because seagulls are protected A.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, so the seagulls are protected from their nesting season,
which is October through to February, so for the rest
of the year, something can be done about it.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, what do you want done about it? Casey?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, ideally I would really love for the seagulls to
be back within nature or go towards the water, or
just kind of be out of urban areall.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
How do you get a seagull to go back towards
the water? Do you just go stand there, go and
go that way? That way?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Oh? I wish it would be that simple. But yeah,
we need to kind of put a proportion in place
so then next year when they come around to nest,
they can go somewhere that isn't among.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Hospitality businesses, what do you reckon?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
You do?

Speaker 1 (01:51):
What do you do? Put up some knitting.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah. Well, there's a whole bunch of preventative measures that
we can try to put into place, but we have
been dealing with us for the last four years so
so far nothing we've thought of has actually worked. So
any ideas would be very helpful.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Well, I mean, all of the ideas that I would
suggest to you, Casey, would be ideas that will probably
get me in trouble with Doc, so we're not going
to have them on the air, but thank you for that.
That's Casey Orderson, Bell Cafe, New Regent Street. For more
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