How longline and trawl fisheries kill millions of seabirds annually and what proven mitigation measures reduce this welfare harm.
Seabird bycatch causes individual welfare harm at the moment of drowning or cable strike, and population-level welfare harm by removing individuals from long-lived species with slow reproductive rates. An albatross that drowns entangled in a longline baited hook has a welfare experience that is acutely distressing; the loss of that individual from a breeding population that produces one chick every 2 years has population consequences that take decades to manifest. The welfare and conservation dimensions are inseparable. The mitigation measures that effectively prevent bycatch are proven, affordable and under-adopted due to insufficient regulatory enforcement and monitoring in many fishing jurisdictions.