Commercial fisheries cause significant seabird bycatch mortality and indirectly harm seabird welfare through depletion of forage fish on which many seabird species depend.
Seabird welfare and fisheries interact through two primary pathways: direct bycatch mortality and indirect food depletion. Longline bycatch causes drowning deaths for tens of thousands of albatrosses and other seabirds annually that are attracted to baited hooks and become entangled. Bird-scaring devices on longlines are highly effective and their mandatory deployment could prevent most of this mortality. Food depletion from industrial forage fish fisheries creates chronic nutritional stress for kittiwakes, terns, and auks whose prey has been removed from their foraging range. The welfare implications of both pathways are significant and tractable — bycatch mitigation is available and affordable, and forage fish management improvements address the nutritional welfare of seabird populations.