Seabirds including albatrosses, petrels, and shearwaters drown on longline fishing hooks. An estimated 300,000 seabirds die as bycatch annually.
Seabirds hooked on longlines experience acute trauma and drowning. The hook penetrates the beak or body, and the bird is dragged underwater unable to surface. Drowning takes minutes. The scale of this mortality threatens entire species - albatrosses breed so slowly that a 2% increase in adult mortality can cause population decline. Mitigation measures that reduce bycatch by 90% or more are available and cost-effective but not universally adopted. Welfare of individual birds and conservation of species are aligned in this case.