After part of the iconic Santa Cruz Wharf collapsed into the ocean amid powerful waves on Monday, feathered culprits have been found to factor into the pier’s damage: seagulls.

While already on alert because of the high surf that hit the Monterey Bay coast Monday, Santa Cruz Lifeguards Lt. Isiah Mullen and Lt. Sam Hofmann, stationed on a Jet Ski in the water near Cowell

When the last 150 feet of Santa Cruz’s iconic wharf plummeted into the ocean Monday, city leaders were still grappling with damage it had sustained two years earlier during back-to-back winter storms.