Gannets are spectacular colonial seabirds facing welfare threats from bycatch entanglement, plastic ingestion and prey availability changes driven by climate.
Gannet welfare threats include acute injury from plastic entanglement, which can amputate wings or legs and causes prolonged death. Ingested plastics and fish hooks cause internal injury. Longer foraging trips required as prey shifts with climate change exhaust parents and reduce food delivery to chicks. Colony-nesting birds experience these threats against a backdrop of otherwise relatively stable populations, but climate-driven prey change represents an accelerating welfare threat that may affect breeding success and individual survival significantly.