Longline fishing kills hundreds of thousands of seabirds annually through incidental capture, threatening population viability and causing significant welfare harm.
Longline seabird bycatch causes acute welfare harm through drowning - a distressing and prolonged death for diving seabirds that become entangled beneath the surface. The scale of this mortality - hundreds of thousands of birds annually - threatens population viability for albatrosses and petrels, many of which breed only once every two years and have long lifespans making population recovery very slow. The conservation and welfare crises are inseparable. Proven mitigation measures exist and can achieve dramatic bycatch reductions - the welfare case for mandatory universal adoption of bird-scaring lines, weighted hooks (to sink bait quickly below the diving depth of seabirds), and night setting is overwhelming. Consumer pressure through certified sustainable seafood purchasing creates market incentives for adoption.