Northern gannets are increasingly entangling their nests and bodies in plastic fishing lines and nets, causing severe welfare harm and threatening one of the North Atlantic iconic seabird colonies.
Entanglement in monofilament fishing line causes prolonged and severe welfare harm for individual gannets and their chicks. Adults trapped at nest sites die slowly from strangulation or starvation. Chicks entangled at the nest cannot fledge and face a distressing fate. Limb entanglement causes progressive ischaemia and necrosis. The preventable nature of this harm, stemming from irresponsible disposal of fishing line, makes each entanglement death a welfare failure attributable to human behaviour. Simple interventions including responsible line disposal and line recovery programmes at nest sites prevent significant animal suffering.