Seabird bycatch in longline and gill net fisheries kills hundreds of thousands of birds annually. Effective, low-cost solutions exist but require wider industry adoption.
Seabird bycatch represents an enormous and largely preventable welfare problem. Birds caught on longline hooks experience drowning — a slow, distressing death. Gill nets entangle birds below the water surface, also causing drowning. The welfare dimension is often overlooked in bycatch discussions focused on population impact, but the experience of individual animals matters as much as population-level statistics. The good news is that effective deterrents are cheap, simple, and already proven — tori lines, weighted hooks, and night setting can reduce bycatch dramatically. The challenge is adoption across the diversity of global fishing operations, particularly in artisanal and small-scale fisheries where monitoring and regulation are difficult.