Every year, thousands of seabirds die tangled in fishing lines around the Faroe Islands. But a seventeen-year study has revealed something surprising: these birds aren't just unlucky victims. They're desperate parents taking dangerous risks to feed their chicks, and their story reveals a problem that's hurting both wildlife and the fishing industry.

The Greedy Seabird with a Dark Secret

The northern fulmar is an elegant gray and white seabird that glides effortlessly across the North Atlantic. To the untrained eye, it resembles a gull, but fulmars belong to an ancient family of tube-nosed seabirds that includes albatrosses and petrels. These birds can live for decades, mate for life, and don't start breeding until they're about nine years old. They're also opportunistic feeders with a particular talent for finding fishing vessels.

When fishermen set longlines, baited hooks sink slowly beneath the waves. For those crucial moments when the bait floats at the surface, it becomes an easy meal for any seabird bold or hungry enough to grab it. But there's a deadly catch: birds that successfully steal the bait often get hooked themselves. As struggling birds slow the sinking line, they attract even more hungry fulmars to the scene, creating a tragic feedback loop.

Between 2004 and 2021, researchers from Wageningen Marine Research in the Netherlands worked with Faroese fishermen and scientists to collect and study 820 fulmars that had been caught in longline fishing operations near the Faroe Islands. What they found painted a complex picture of risk, hunger, and economic loss.

A Dangerous Dining Table

When the research team opened the stomachs of these unfortunate birds, they discovered something remarkable. About 71% of the fulmars had bait in their stomachs, proving they'd been actively stealing from fishing lines before getting caught. On average, each bird had consumed two pieces of bait, but some were far more aggressive. Six birds had ten or more bait items in their stomachs, with one exceptional individual carrying seventeen pieces.

Think about that for a moment. These weren't accidental encounters. These birds had successfully stolen bait multiple times, perhaps from multiple hooks, before their luck ran out. The bait chunks, carefully identified by researchers through clean cuts in fish tissue and bone, told the story of birds that had become specialized at this risky foraging strategy.

The bait itself varied. Most consisted of fish, particularly Atlantic mackerel and herring, but about a quarter was squid, and some fishermen even used whelks. The birds didn't seem particularly choosy. What mattered was that the food was easy to access and abundant.

When Desperation Drives Decisions

The most revealing finding came when researchers compared bait consumption across different seasons. During the breeding months of June, July, and August, when adult fulmars were incubating eggs or feeding chicks, the amount of bait in their stomachs jumped dramatically. Adult birds during the chick rearing period in July and August had an average of 2.5 bait items in their stomachs, compared to just 1.8 items during the rest of the year.

This wasn't a small difference. It was statistically significant and pointed to something important: breeding birds were taking bigger risks. And they had good reason. During the same period, the researchers noticed that these adult birds were in noticeably poorer body condition than birds caught outside the breeding season. The stress of feeding growing chicks while being constrained to foraging areas close to their nesting colonies was taking a visible toll.

Imagine being a parent fulmar. Your single chick is demanding more food every day as it grows. You can't travel as far from the colony as you normally would because you need to return regularly to feed your offspring. Natural food sources near the colony may be scarce or unpredictable. Then you see a fishing vessel, trailing an easy meal on hundreds of baited hooks. The temptation must be overwhelming.

Young birds that weren't breeding showed no such seasonal pattern. They maintained similar bait consumption year round, suggesting they weren't under the same time pressure or energy demands as the breeding adults.

The Male Advantage, or Curse

Another pattern emerged from the data that surprised the researchers. Males made up a disproportionate number of the bycatch victims. This wasn't unique to fulmars; studies of many seabird species have found that males get caught more often than females in fishing gear.

The reason appears to be geographical rather than behavioral. During certain times of year, particularly in May before breeding begins, males stay closer to the nesting colonies while females range farther afield. Since most of the longline fishing around the Faroe Islands happens relatively close to shore, within 100 kilometers of the coast, the fishermen are working right where male fulmars are concentrated.

The dominance of adult birds in the bycatch sample, about 73% of all victims, also makes geographical sense. Young fulmars spend their first several years wandering widely across the ocean before returning to breed. They're simply not around the colonies where the fishing happens most intensively.

This age bias creates a conservation problem. Removing mainly adult birds from the population is far more damaging than losing juveniles. Adult fulmars are experienced breeders who have already demonstrated they can survive to reproductive age. They form long term pair bonds, and breaking these bonds through the death of one partner means losing breeding opportunities for years as the surviving bird tries to find a new mate. Taking out the most productive members of a population that doesn't start breeding until age nine and produces only one chick per year is a recipe for decline.

An Economic Equation Nobody Wins

Here's where the story gets interesting from a purely economic standpoint. Those bait stealing birds represent real money lost to fishermen. Every piece of bait a fulmar swallows is one less hook that might catch a valuable fish. The researchers couldn't calculate exact loss figures for the Faroe Islands, but they referenced studies from other regions that painted a stark picture.

In the South Atlantic, researchers estimated that seabirds stealing longline bait cost the fishing industry between 1.5 and 2 million US dollars over ten years. In the Russian Pacific, the financial hit reached over 800,000 dollars in a single year for just twenty vessels. Some fishing trips have been rendered entirely unprofitable when seabirds stole too much bait.

A previous analysis specific to the Faroe Islands suggested that depending on how many birds follow a vessel and how efficient the fishing is, the cost per trip could range from a few hundred Danish Kroner up to nearly 90,000 Kroner in worst case scenarios. When you're a commercial fishing operation working on thin margins, those numbers matter.

So we have a situation where seabirds are dying in significant numbers, and fishermen are losing money at the same time. It's the definition of a lose-lose scenario.

The Wider Picture of Decline

The stakes extend beyond economics. Fulmar populations across the North Atlantic have been declining seriously in recent decades. In the Canadian Arctic, numbers are falling. Iceland has seen declines. Norway, including its Arctic territories, reports population drops. Breeding colonies in the United Kingdom and Ireland are shrinking. Even a small German population is decreasing.

The Faroe Islands themselves host an estimated 600,000 breeding pairs of fulmars, making it one of the species' strongholds. But even here, observers documented a 20 to 30 percent decrease between 1990 and 2010. The reasons for these widespread declines remain unclear and likely involve multiple factors, from climate change affecting food availability to pollution. But bycatch in fisheries has been identified as a significant contributing factor.

Preliminary data from observer trips on Faroese longline vessels suggest that around 9,500 fulmars might be getting caught annually in these waters, with a peak in June. To put that in perspective, researchers in UK waters estimate between 2,000 and 9,000 fulmar deaths from longline bycatch. In Norway, fulmars make up 99% of seabird longline bycatch.

For a bird that lives for decades but produces only one chick per year after reaching maturity at age nine, even seemingly modest annual mortality from fishing gear can tip a population into decline.

Solutions That Benefit Everyone

Here's the hopeful part of this story. Unlike many environmental problems where solving the issue for wildlife costs industry money, reducing seabird bycatch in longline fisheries can actually improve fishing efficiency and profitability.

Scientists have developed and tested numerous mitigation measures that work. Bird scaring lines, which are basically streamers that keep birds away from baited hooks as they're being set, have proven highly effective. Weighting the fishing lines so they sink faster gives seabirds less time to access the bait. Setting lines at night when fewer seabirds are active can help, though this is less practical in high latitude locations like the Faroe Islands where summer brings endless daylight and winter brings endless darkness. Restrictions on discarding fish offal while setting lines can reduce the attraction of vessels to seabirds.

Studies have shown that when these measures are applied properly, often in combination, they can reduce seabird bycatch by up to 90 percent. And crucially, one analysis estimated that using mitigation measures could increase the catch of target fish species by 9 percent because more bait actually reaches the bottom where the fish are.

Think about that equation. You spend relatively modest amounts on bird scaring equipment or weighted lines, and in return you save money on bait that actually catches fish, plus you potentially increase your overall catch by nearly 10 percent. Meanwhile, you stop killing thousands of seabirds. It's genuinely win-win.

Currently, the Faroe Islands don't require seabird bycatch mitigation measures on longline vessels. Given the research findings, there's a strong case for changing that policy. The measures needed aren't prohibitively expensive or complicated. They don't significantly slow down fishing operations. And they address a problem that's costing both the fishing industry and seabird populations.

An Unexpected Scientific Bonus

Interestingly, this study also confirmed something useful for marine pollution researchers. Scientists have been using dead fulmars to monitor plastic pollution in the ocean, examining how much plastic the birds have swallowed. But there was a question: do birds regurgitate their stomach contents when they get caught on fishing lines, potentially making plastic counts inaccurate?

The fact that 71% of the longline caught fulmars still had bait in their stomachs strongly suggests that regurgitation isn't a major problem. When birds get hooked and pulled underwater, they apparently don't have time to empty their stomachs. This validates the use of longline bycatch victims for plastic monitoring studies, which is important given how difficult it is to obtain seabird specimens for research.

The Path Forward

The fulmar's story around the Faroe Islands illustrates a broader truth about human impacts on wildlife. Often, the same activities that harm animal populations also represent inefficiencies or losses for the people conducting those activities. Finding solutions requires looking beyond the simple narrative of economy versus environment and recognizing shared interests.

Breeding fulmars are desperate for food. They're taking extreme risks to feed their chicks, as evidenced by their increased bait consumption and decreased body condition during the breeding season. Those risks are killing them in numbers that contribute to population declines across their range. Meanwhile, fishermen are losing bait and catching fewer fish than they could.

The technology and methods to solve this problem already exist. They've been tested and proven effective in multiple fisheries around the world. Implementation costs are manageable. The benefits flow to both industry and conservation.

What's needed now is the will to act. Fisheries managers, fishing industry representatives, and conservation organizations need to work together to implement proven bycatch reduction measures. The data from this seventeen year study provide clear evidence that the problem is real and significant. The solutions are available.

Every fulmar that steals bait and escapes represents a bird that might go on to raise chicks for decades. Every piece of bait that reaches the bottom intact is one that might catch a valuable fish. The math works for everyone. Sometimes, if we're lucky, protecting wildlife and protecting livelihoods aren't competing interests. Sometimes they're the same interest, viewed from different angles.

The fulmars of the Faroe Islands are showing us where those interests align. The question is whether we'll pay attention.

Publication Details

Published: 2024
Journal: ICES Journal of Marine Science
Publisher: Oxford University Press
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsae175

Credit and Disclaimer

This article is based on original research published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science. The content has been adapted for a general audience while maintaining scientific accuracy. For complete technical details, comprehensive data, full methodology, and in depth analysis, readers are encouraged to access the original peer reviewed research article through the DOI link provided above. All factual information, data interpretations, and scientific conclusions presented here are derived from the original publication, and full credit goes to the research team at Wageningen Marine Research and their collaborators in the Faroe Islands.