Northern gannets are one of Britain most spectacular seabirds, forming vast breeding colonies on sea stacks and cliff edges. Their welfare is shaped by food availability, plastic pollution, and the health of North Atlantic fish stocks.
Gannet welfare is threatened by a combination of food stress, plastic entanglement, and emerging disease. The 2022 HPAI outbreak was one of the most visible and distressing wildlife welfare events in recent UK history — thousands of dead and dying gannets were visible at major colonies and washed up on beaches. Individual birds entangled in plastic nesting material suffer slow death from strangulation or starvation. Chicks unable to escape nesting plastic may be trapped and die of exposure or predation. Addressing these threats requires reducing plastic pollution, managing sandeel fisheries sustainably, and developing HPAI surveillance and response capacity at major colonies.