Hundreds of thousands of seabirds are killed annually as bycatch in longline and trawl fisheries, and proven mitigation technologies can dramatically reduce this preventable mortality.
Seabird bycatch causes acute drowning deaths in birds that become entangled in longline gear or trapped in trawl nets. Drowning is a prolonged and distressing death, and birds that escape initial entanglement may sustain injuries from hooks that cause slow death through infection or inability to feed. The welfare tragedy is compounded by the fact that effective mitigation tools exist and are inexpensive relative to their impact. Tori lines, night setting, line weighting to sink hooks faster, and bird-scaring lines on trawl vessels can collectively eliminate the majority of seabird bycatch when used together. The barrier is not technology but compliance and enforcement.