Seagulls making themselves at home on rooftop of Glace Bay High School

Seagulls causing mess at Cape Breton high school Cape Breton High School is seeing an increased mess from seagulls and it’s frustrating some residents.

While seagulls are a large part of the seaside culture, a flock of seagulls isn’t being welcomed by residents in the area of a high school in Cape Breton.

Residents say Glace Bay High School has become surrounded by dozens of seagulls and they’re leaving a mess all over the windows, walls and even some nearby homes.

“It was never like this back in the day. I graduated in '94. Seeing it like this, it's not nice,” says alumni member Aaron MacDonald.

David McCorquodal, a biology professor at Cape Breton University, says dozens of the birds are nesting on the roof because it’s safe from predators and close to a food source.

“It's a big, flat area that's protected for them to nest. This group on Glace Bay High School, they're very close to the coastline, very close to Glace Bay Harbour, so there's fish plants there," says McCorquodal.

He says the seagulls are normally seen in large numbers at the grocery store parking lot next door to the school. According to McCorquodal, garbage from the store and fast-food restaurants are not a problem because the birds are feeding on waste from nearby lobster boats.

McCorquodal says there may be a solution.

“In downtown Vancouver, they nest on all sorts of apartment buildings.  They'll put up a physical barrier. Either little spikes or a grid of rope.  If you've got a grid of ropes there, it just makes it so they're not going to come,” says McCorquodal.

The Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board declined to comment on the matter.

With files from CTV’s Ryan MacDonald