Why don’t humans eat seagulls? Hardly on the endandered species list, there seems to be plenty of them. Is it simply a matter of not enough meat on their bones or is the taste just too foul?
(Not from personal experience) -
They are very very oily, and (if they are true seagulls, and not the ones that live in cities on trash) taste very strongly of bad fish. They can also carry a number of diseases and parasites that affect humans.
If you are starving however, sure… Kill one, clean it well, and cook the meat very well. Most suggestions include cutting the meat into thinnish strips, and roasting or frying the strips, rather then chunks. The will provide protein.
Another take on the subject: http://www.survival-school.org/Default.aspx?tabid=249&g=posts&t=2442
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An old joke from the northeast (Maine, MA, etc):
Jack: “Why don’t you folk up here eat the seagulls?”
Old Timer: “Well, if you put a brick and a seagull in an oven, the brick would be done first, taste better, and be more tender”.
I’ve read accounts of coastal communities eating gulls, but they tend to be accounts of hardship - gulls seem to be a famine food eaten when other coastal resources (fish, shellfish, gull eggs) fail. I think that’s probably a fair indication that they’re not very palatable.
When I was a kid (circa 1970?) I remember a kid at school whose family just immigrated from Iran. The kid got busted at the local park, where he was shooting pigeons with a BB gun. The cop took the kid home, turning him over to his parents.
The parents were shocked that the cop interfered. Turns out they had sent him to the park to get pigeon for cooking.
Seagulls taste lousy, but I have had squab and it wasn’t bad. Why don’t we eat pigeons??
“With dawn came the gulls, drawn by the carrion upon which my transport rested…”
My WAG is that squab raised for food purposes get a much better diet than city pigeons, and that this will make a big difference in the taste of the meat.
I hear the story once of the missionary in northern Canada many moons ago who wanted to teach the Indians civilized ways. He got a grant from the government to buy them some pigs to raise. After a few months the money ran out for pig feed; However, pigs will eat almost anything, so he recruited the natives to fish the local small lakes with nets and they pulled in thousands of garbage fish that even the locals tended not to eat.
When winter came and it was time to slaughter the pigs, rather than feed them all winter, they had a big feast and roasted them up. Everyone took one bite and spit it out; the pigs tasted so foully of fish that nobody wanted to eat them. So, they tossed the carcasses out for the dog packs to eat; but even the odgs wouldn’t touch the stuff.
it’s a cute story, even if it’s probably not true. However, your choice with gulls is a bird fed on rotten trash or a bird fed on the worst leavings of the sea; neither sounds appetizing. Generally, humans tend not to eat carrion eaters.
That’s actually how pigeons got to America. People brought them over to breed for food, and some got loose.
Catfish!
We eat pigeon pretty often. My pigeon pie is renowned. Seagull, on the other hand, tastes like your bin would smell if you left a dead fish in it while you went away for a week. In the summer.
and to me catfish taste amazingly nasty. Oily, metallic and muddy. Even the farmed crap from the grocery store. Totally a shit fish that I refuse to eat.
If it would erase the book and movie from my memory (or, even better, from existence), I would quite happily eat Jonathan Livingston Seagull no matter how bad he tasted. 
Glad I’m not the only one. 
They may not be endandered (sic), but they are protected.
I wish people would start eating Canada Geese.
In parts of the world people eat mutton-birds - in NZ this is the Sooty Shearwater. They are oily, but not bad.
Si
They’re quite greasy.
Gulls have protection here too.
People who shoot wood-pigeons do eat them, though it can be an acquired taste.
I’d refuse to eat them regularly due to the spoonerism possibilities – or is that a bonus?
The breast meat on young wood pigeon is quite similar to fillet steak (IMO) - dark, mild, tender - there’s really nothing not to like, unless you’re a vegetarian or just don’t like the idea.
Older birds can taste a bit more gamey/bloody, and the meat may be firmer and more dense (a bit like liver, in fact).