Sir,

It was interesting to read the headline report in last week's paper about a call for a cull of the Herring Gulls in Tenby.

It's a pity that there is a lack of understanding about the populations of these birds and their impact on our environment. I have been studying them on the Pembrokeshire islands and around the coastline for over 50 years and have censused St. Margaret's Island annually since 1964 and Caldey since 1976. Previously I was involved in the first national census and I wrote the census methodology for the JNCC seabird monitoring handbook.

The stark facts are that Herring Gulls are now red listed as a bird of conservation concern as their populations nationally have declined by almost 80 per cent. On the Pembrokeshire coastline they are now almost extinct and I have records which show almost 600 pairs nesting between Tenby and Saundersfoot in the late 1960s compared with today's total of around 20 pairs. On Caldey and St. Margaret's there were over 4,000 pairs in the mid-1970s and now there are just over 2,000. The picture is even more marked on the seabird islands of Skomer and Skokholm where the populations have declined from 2,950 pairs to 260 and from 1,400 pairs to 230, respectively, and generally around the Pembrokeshire coastline there are very few nesting gulls. Caldey is now nationally important as it is the third largest Herring Gull colony in the UK.

It is true that there are gulls breeding on the rooftops in Tenby, a habit which has increased nationally, and there are public concerns in many cities and towns - although many of the gulls are Lesser Black-Backed Gulls as well as Herring Gulls. There seem to be about 30 pairs in Tenby and numbers haven't changed much for 20 years at least.

The problem of gulls making a mess on the streets of the town and taking food from people is that they are quite intelligent birds and relatively few birds have learnt that we humans are quite messy creatures and that they can take advantage of the rubbish we leave out. It's the people we need to educate and if the gulls have learnt to remove covering material over the rubbish bags, then putting a heavier cover over the bags would solve that problem.

Stop feeding the gulls and they will go somewhere else to feed. As for the rooftop gulls attacking builders - well a big gull weighs in at a healthy 1kg, it's hardly a contest is it.

Listen to Clrs. Trevor Hallett and Will Rossiter - they do know what they are talking about.

Steve Sutcliffe,

Mullock Cottages,

Marloes.