Gannets are spectacular colonial seabirds whose welfare reflects the health of the North Atlantic marine ecosystem, with prey availability, plastic pollution, and entanglement as primary concerns.
Gannet welfare is shaped primarily by two human-caused stressors: plastic/monofilament entanglement and prey availability. Entanglement in nest material is a particularly poignant welfare issue - gannets collect monofilament and plastic netting that looks like seaweed, weaving it into nests where it entangles chicks and adults. Affected birds die slowly from constriction injuries. The scale is significant: survey work at major colonies has documented thousands of entanglement injuries annually. Prey availability affects adult welfare through energy expenditure - gannets at colonies distant from prey must fly greater distances, and chick welfare is directly determined by food delivery rate.