Northern gannets are increasingly incorporating plastic fishing line and waste into their nests, with deadly consequences for chicks and breeding adults.
Gannet chicks entangled in plastic nesting material suffer prolonged suffering from injuries to feet, wings, and necks as they grow into increasingly tight entanglements. Dehydration and starvation follow as entangled chicks cannot be fed. Adults entangled at nest sites face similar outcomes. The distress of parents watching entangled chicks they cannot assist represents a welfare concern alongside the direct physical suffering of the chick. Ghost fishing gear at sea entangles diving gannets causing drowning.