Seabird Bycatch

Many of our products are designed to make fishing more efficient and more targeted. In this way fishers can minimise the amount of gear and time in the water. It also increases the potential for fishing to move away from gear and techniques that may be more damaging to the environment or less discriminate.

THE PROBLEM

An estimated 400,000 seabirds die every year in gillnets every year. These nets are often concentrated in coastal areas where seabirds are breeding and feeding, leading to high levels of entanglement. The highest bycatch has been reported in the Pacific northwest, Iceland and the Baltic Sea.  

Significant numbers of seabirds are also caught on longline hooks and drowned annually – estimates range from 160,000 to 320,000. Albatross and storm petrel species target the baited hooks as they are shot from fishing vessels in the southern oceans, where they are drowned. Of the 61 species affected by longline fisheries, 21 are threatened with extinction, including 18 of the 22 species of albatross.  

OUR TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

HOOKPODS

Hookpods were developed by Pete and Ben Kibel with bycatch expert Dr Ben Sullivan, Birdlife International and fishing companies from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Hookpod Ltd is now a separate company who focus on building the evidence base, raising funds and supporting uptake amongst fishing companies who operate long lines in waters shared with albatrosses and petrels.   

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LUMOLEAD

LumoLead is designed with triple benefits – as a lead to sink bait out of reach of seabirds, with a sliding attachment that serves as a safety measure and with luminescent material to attract fish.

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ABOVE WATER DETERRENTS

In 2023 we started a trial with set net fishermen in Cornwall with funding support from the Fisheries Industry Science Partnership and Equinor. We tested the Looming Eye Buoy alongside a commercially available kite over an 18 month period. The results for both devices showed a significant reduction in sea bird bycatch (particularly guillemots and razorbills). Feedback from those fishers taking part in the trial highlighted a number of advantages for the kite as well as some design improvements. We are working on some prototypes for a new deterrent kite with trials planned for winter 2025.

EVIDENCE BASE

There is a well-established and growing body of research for the Hookpod. In trials in South Africa, southern Brazil and Australia Hookpod had a 95% reduction in bycatch of storm petrel and albatross species. In New Zealand, the Hookpod had a 69% improvement on using line weighting. Trials for LumoLeads in the Southern Ocean led to a 67% reduction in albatross bycatch in longline fisheries.

Research for above water deterrents for gill net fisheries is ongoing and publications are currently in preparation.

Paper	Location	Product/model used	Effect	Species	Gear Type
Buoys with looming eyes deter seaducks and could potentially reduce seabird bycatch in gillnets. (Rouxel et al., 2021)	NW Mediterranean, France	Fishteks Looming Eye Buoy	45-53% deterrent within 50m of LEB	Long- tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis)	Gillnets
Hookpod-mini: a smaller potential solution to mitigate seabird bycatch in pelagic longline fisheries. (Goad et al., 2019)	New Zealand	Hookpod-mini	69% better at reducing seabird bycatch than line weighting alone	Multiple seabird species	Surface Longline
At-sea trialling of the Hookpod: a ‘one-stop’ mitigation solution for seabird bycatch in pelagic longline fisheries. (Sullivan et al., 2017)	South Africa, southern Brazil and Australia	Hookpod	95% reduction	Multiple petrel and albatross species	Longline
LumoLeads: a potential, new, safe line weighting technique to reduce seabird bycatch for pelagic longline fisheries. (Rollinson et al., 2016)	Sothern Ocean off Western Australia & Southern Africa	Fishteks LumoLeads (Various models)	67% reduction	Albatross spp.	Longline