re: Alabama man accused of shooting seagulls, ibis, heron with 12-gauge in Louisiana

Over 35 yrs ago when I was working for my father-in-law on his 60-foot trawler I used to hate the seagulls. They would hover just over the back of the boat squawking and shitting all over everything.

I had heard about the Alka-Seltzer story and I tried it but they never would take it.

I started tossing small fish up in the air off the back of the boat and they were good at catching them. One time we drug up an old rat trap in the trawls so I baited it with a small fish and left it out there but they were too smart for that.

Next trip I brought my wrist rocket slingshot and a bag of steel balls. I started shooting them out of the air when they hovered and knocking them off the trawl boom guy cables. FIL came out and saw me doing it and gave me a little hell about it. Said he shot them by the hundreds with a .22 when he was a kid but nowadays "The Conservation" would "book you" for it. Then I got worried about Greenjeans coming and finding us and I thought the damn things would never float away from the boat.

FIL also made me stop collecting small dead speckled trout in a bucket to feed to the porpoises after we anchored for the night. The would come up and take the trout right out of my hand. He didn't want the Conservation to book us.

Trawling was some damn hard work but a lot of great times and memories too.