Northern gannets are the UK's largest seabird and breed in spectacular cliff colonies. Plastic entanglement, fishing interactions, and food availability changes all affect individual and colony welfare.
Gannet welfare combines spectacular natural history with human-caused welfare threats. The grotesque deaths of chicks strangled by plastic rope their parents incorporated into nests - rope intended to secure the nest but instead killing the next generation - represent one of the clearest visual demonstrations of plastic pollution's individual welfare impact. Each chick death is an extended, agonizing welfare failure caused directly by marine plastic debris. Removing plastic from gannet nesting areas, intercepting marine plastic before it reaches breeding colonies, and reducing marine plastic at source are all direct welfare interventions for individual birds.