Herring gulls feeding again on Pacific oysters Crassostrea gigas in the Dutch Wadden Sea near Texel

In December 2007, herring gulls again started dropping Pacific oysters on the Wadden Sea dike on the island of Texel (The Netherlands). On this locality they had done this for the first time in 2000, but never since. They were now more successful, crushing over 90% of the oysters against only 30% in 2000. Moreover, they crushed larger and heavier oysters than in 2000. They selected single oysters or small clusters as did the oystercatchers, which started feeding here on Pacific oysters only two months earlier in 2007. Herring gulls take on average larger speci - mens than the oystercatchers.