If you visit the beach, you know the havoc seagulls and other birds can wreak.
First, if you’re eating, the birds always seem to be circling, hoping you take your eyes off your plate. Sometimes birds can be incredibly aggressive, dive-bombing your table or literally trying to take food out of your hands.
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Having birds around is also messy because birds do not practice any sort of good bathroom hygiene. They go wherever they happen to be, and their stuff can create messy seating and tables and/or end up in your food.
And while some people say it’s good luck when a bird poops on you, few actually believe that.
A Royal Caribbean crew member, Bryan James, a guitarist for the cruise line, shared how birds are kept away from cruise ships when they’re in port. It’s actually a fairly ingenious method that you may not have even noticed when you’re on board.
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Here’s How Royal Caribbean keeps birds away
Transcript:
A little-known fact about cruise ships is that they pump in bird sounds over the loudspeakers to make it so other birds don’t just land all over the ship. And there are dozens and dozens flying all around right now.
I guess it’s like eagle sounds or, I don’t know, like, dinosaur sounds that keep them away because if it was seagulls that were also making the sound, I feel like they’d want to join them and be their friends.
So the speakers look like this. They’re just like megaphones all over the front of the ship, and they’re pretty loud.
They’re in a spot where a lot of people just don’t hang out, so you, I guess, you just don’t really notice it, but whoever thought of this, genius!
Royal Caribbean has one more trick
What James did not share is that Royal Caribbean uses a different tactic on its Perfect Day at CocoCay private island.
If you look up when you’re on the island, you will see fake eagles “flying” over various parts of the island. These apparently also dissuade other birds from becoming a nuisance on the island.
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This tactic, however, is less successful as anyone who has ever eaten lunch at one of the two main barbecue spots on CocoCay knows well. Some seagulls, perhaps the smarter ones, still hover around the food areas, waiting for people to leave their trays.
Since some passengers don’t properly clean up after themselves, food is often left for the birds.
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