Marcos Zeraschi, who owns Marcos’s Cafe on Barry Island’s promenade, says the only way to deal with the rising number of seagulls is to cull them.
His comments come on the same day that MPs are debating the rising seagull population.
Mr Zeraschi says there have been problems at his cafe when food has been dropped on the floor and seagulls have upset his customers.
He says “They’ve become a bit of a menace now. They’re not in their natural environment. They used to hunt fish in the sea and now all their fish has batter on it”.
In Cardiff and the surrounding areas seagull numbers are increasing.
NBC Environment, a pest control consultancy, says there are currently 3,000 mating pairs of seagulls in the city. They estimate that this could almost double to 5,000 pairs of seagulls by 2020.
Not everyone in Barry Island felt as strongly as Mr Zeraschi. One woman, who did not want to be named, said the seagulls had lived on the cliffs for thousands of years.
“People cause the problem by not wrapping up their rubbish properly.”
Seagulls are a protected species and by law can’t be culled. If MPs decide to change this they will need to make new laws.
The Conservative MP for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport asked for the debate.
Oliver Colvile says “I represent a seaside city and most certainly there has been a number of issues with aggressive seagulls”.
