Hundreds of thousands of seabirds including albatrosses drown on longline hooks annually. Simple, proven mitigation measures can dramatically reduce this mortality.
Seabirds that become hooked on longlines and dragged underwater experience drowning, a prolonged and distressing death. Albatrosses, petrels, and other pelagic seabirds that have survived millions of years of ocean life are being pushed toward extinction by a preventable human practice. The mitigation tools exist and work — bird-scaring streamers, night setting, and weighted lines all significantly reduce incidental capture. The barrier is not technology but enforcement, monitoring, and the political will to require their adoption across all longline fleets, including those of nations with weaker fisheries regulations.