A city in Sweden has built a dedicated seagull lavatory in an attempt to lure the birds away from doing their business in the marina. After cries of exasperation from the local yachting set at Marieberg bay, officials in central Sweden’s Karlstad municipality put in place a designated pontoon, which they hope the gulls will congregate, and therefore relieve themselves, on.
“We have a growing problem with the gulls and boat-owners have tired of having their property soiled. They have quite a lot of money invested there,” said Jens Gustafsson of Karlstad municipality in a report by The Local.
Gustafsson added that the gull loo is just the latest in a string of measures the city has tried to tempt the birds in to dropping their unwelcome deposits away from the marina. “We have tried the normal measures, like scarecrows and such like, but the birds get used to it and carry on as normal. We have built a platform – the gulls like to sit and enjoy the view,” he said.
The pontoon was towed into place on Friday and its effectiveness will be evaluated in the coming days.
“We hope that this will solve the problem with the gulls, although there was a swallow sitting on the jetty when we were working on it this morning,” Gustafsson said.