Seabird populations have declined by 70% globally since 1970, driven by fishing bycatch, plastic ingestion, and disruption of nesting colonies. Understanding these pressures is essential for effective conservation.
Seabirds face welfare harms across their entire life history: slow starvation from plastic-filled stomachs, drowning on longlines, and colony disruption from introduced predators. At the individual level, these deaths are prolonged and distressing. At the population level, the collapse of colonies represents the loss of complex social systems that have evolved over millennia. The solutions are technically straightforward: seabird-safe fishing gear, island predator control, and plastic reduction. Implementation requires political will and international fisheries cooperation.