UK seals are regularly caught as bycatch in fishing gear, suffering drowning or entanglement injuries. Understanding bycatch rates and mitigation is important for seal welfare.
Seal bycatch causes acute suffering through drowning or slower death from entanglement in abandoned gear. The welfare cost of individual incidents is severe, and population-level impacts affect thousands of animals annually. Mitigation measures including acoustic deterrents, gear modification and observer programmes can reduce incidents but require industry engagement and regulatory mandates to achieve meaningful scale.