Seabird colonies worldwide face mounting threats from bycatch in fishing gear, prey depletion, plastic pollution, and climate-driven changes to ocean ecosystems. Their welfare intersects with broad marine conservation challenges.
Individual seabirds caught in fishing gear suffer acute stress, injury, and drowning. Colony-level welfare is affected by chronic food shortage causing adults to make longer foraging trips, abandon chicks, or produce underweight offspring with poor survival odds. Plastic pollution causes suffering through ingestion and entanglement. Restoring seabird welfare requires systemic change: reducing bycatch through bird-scaring lines and night setting on longlines, managing sand eel and other forage fish stocks, controlling invasive predators on breeding islands, and addressing climate change.