Seagulls are a common sight anywhere where humans live in large numbers. They congregate in large numbers to eat bread or other food thrown by people, and also notoriously gather at landfills and other garbage dumps to eat the remains of human garbage. Gulls can be found far inland, feeding on refuse discarded by human society and competing with other birds like pigeons or starlings.
But is there any possibility gulls could be domesticated by any society? Gulls (and their eggs) are eaten by a number of human cultures, from American Indians to Europeans to East Asians. Their meat is said to taste fishy, based on their natural diet (it is advised to avoid their meat now since seagulls tend to eat garbage in this day and age). There'd likely be the need to break their wings and breed them so they couldn't fly, or couldn't fly far.
There's a real comparison to domesticated pigeons, since pigeons also congregate around human settlements and feed on refuse. Squab was a popular meat before it was displaced by chicken. I remember as a kid I called gulls "sea pigeons" since there'd always be a few seagulls in the flock of pigeons trying to get the bread you'd be feeding them (this was in a park which people enjoyed feeding the birds in). Seagulls can be rather large, and selective breeding can increase the size further. They could be selectively fed with the byproducts of agriculture or fishing to get a particular quality of meat.
As for their impact, I'd assume domesticated seagulls might cause maritime societies to be both stronger (especially more marginal cultures) and perhaps more careful of managing their wild seagull population and where they feed, so they don't mingle with domesticated seagulls. It would be interesting if seagulls are domesticated in a society with few domesticates, like the Americas or parts of Africa, there seagulls might be much more important for protein.
But is there any possibility gulls could be domesticated by any society? Gulls (and their eggs) are eaten by a number of human cultures, from American Indians to Europeans to East Asians. Their meat is said to taste fishy, based on their natural diet (it is advised to avoid their meat now since seagulls tend to eat garbage in this day and age). There'd likely be the need to break their wings and breed them so they couldn't fly, or couldn't fly far.
There's a real comparison to domesticated pigeons, since pigeons also congregate around human settlements and feed on refuse. Squab was a popular meat before it was displaced by chicken. I remember as a kid I called gulls "sea pigeons" since there'd always be a few seagulls in the flock of pigeons trying to get the bread you'd be feeding them (this was in a park which people enjoyed feeding the birds in). Seagulls can be rather large, and selective breeding can increase the size further. They could be selectively fed with the byproducts of agriculture or fishing to get a particular quality of meat.
As for their impact, I'd assume domesticated seagulls might cause maritime societies to be both stronger (especially more marginal cultures) and perhaps more careful of managing their wild seagull population and where they feed, so they don't mingle with domesticated seagulls. It would be interesting if seagulls are domesticated in a society with few domesticates, like the Americas or parts of Africa, there seagulls might be much more important for protein.
