Dead fish, the smell of decay and the ocean. The perfect meals for lazy gulls and seabirds. Betwixt the fishing boats, tourists walking as if looking at artworks. Wild animals feel comfortable between the various peoples; tourists and fishermen. An uncanny relationship; feeding the lazy, the lazy feeding on the strange.
We walked on the pier between the boats after having some lunch and we saw the many sea birds that had made their feeding grounds the leftover dump yard of the fishing industry.
Sea rats, we might call these little friends.
But it leads to an interesting observation; like I have written about in many of my other posts. These birds can no longer go without us; they have grown dependent on the fishing industry throwing the leftovers away and thus feeding them.
For a brief moment, I enjoy this uncanny relationship in which I can walk up close to these friends. They seem unphased and unbothered by my appearance and my close proximity. They carry on with their scavenging hunts.
They eat the fishing scraps, but they also eat the foods that tourists throw at them. The poor birds would not know what a healthy meal looks like after so many years of conditioning.
Luckily, they still look healthy, they seem to have adapted in the right way. There were a couple of doves and pigeons walking between the sea birds, but they did not look very healthy and happy.
The uncanny relationship bothers me the longer I think about it. For our viewing pleasure, we want them to come closer and closer. For them, it is merely a free lunch that keeps on giving without it ever stopping, until it stops. Something strange happened in South Africa a couple of years ago. Due to very strict lockdowns during Covid, many of these animals that became dependent on us feeding them, struggled as most tourist hotspots were closed down to the public. I wonder what these birds and animals thought as their food sources dried up, that what they have depended on for so long dried up.
Alas, it is what it is. We need to eat, they need to eat and somehow this relationship just works out. Even though not ideal, it happens on a daily basis. Close by to the birds, various seals have adopted this lazy lifestyle. Now they have become so dependent on the fishermen that they cannot survive in the wild any longer.
In any case, I hope that you enjoyed these couple of photographs of these stunning animals. They have adapted to our world and we adapted to them being part of ours. Even though this is far from ideal, it is something to marvel at. The closer we get to them, the more we can sympathise with them. But this is too late, I would think. Getting to where we are, we will not be able to rewind and return.
Let us hope. Never lose hope, my family always say.
For now, happy birding and stay well.
The photographs in this post are my own, taken with my Nikon D300 and 50mm lens. The musings and writings are also my own.
