Seabird Bycatch Welfare | Animal Welfare Hub

The welfare impact of seabird bycatch in longline and trawl fisheries, and solutions that protect albatrosses, petrels, and other threatened species.

Key Facts

An estimated 300,000 seabirds including 100,000 albatrosses are killed annually as bycatch in longline fisheries
Seabirds attracted to bait or offal during line setting are hooked and drown when the line sinks
19 of 22 albatross species are threatened with extinction, with bycatch a primary driver of population decline
Three simple mitigation measures — bird-scaring lines, night setting, and line weighting — can reduce seabird bycatch by 90%+
The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels coordinates international mitigation efforts
Trawl fishery offal discharge also attracts seabirds who become entangled in the trawl wire and drown
Some jurisdictions now require bycatch mitigation measures on longline vessels fishing in seabird-sensitive areas

Welfare Considerations

Seabird bycatch drowning is a welfare event — birds attracted to bait are hooked and pulled underwater, where they struggle until they drown. This happens hundreds of thousands of times per year to animals with complex social lives, long pair bonds, and typically single chick annual reproduction. The extraordinary efficiency of available mitigation measures makes seabird bycatch one of the most tractable large-scale wildlife welfare problems: the technology to reduce it by over 90% exists, is cheap, and requires only regulatory requirements and fisher training to implement. The persistence of this problem is a regulatory and enforcement failure rather than a technical one.

What You Can Do

Choose seafood certified by the Marine Stewardship Council or equivalent programs that audit bycatch mitigation
Support BirdLife International and its Albatross Task Force which trains fishers in bycatch mitigation techniques
Advocate for mandatory bycatch mitigation requirements in all longline fisheries operating in seabird habitat areas
Ask seafood retailers about the bycatch mitigation practices of their longline fishing suppliers
Support extension of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels to additional flag states