Birds are hooked or steal bait mainly when lines are being set and the bait is near the surface. Once a bird is hooked, the line sinks much more slowly owing to the buoyancy of the bird. This increases the risk of other birds becoming hooked. A few simple measures have been shown to help reduce seabird bycatch. Unfrozen bait sinks faster, thus making it available to the birds for a shorter period of time.
Weighted lines help the bait sink faster.
Trailing a streamer line in the air behind a vessel interferes with the birds' diving on bait. But there are no data on the effectiveness of these or other proposed measures and research is badly needed. In each of the last 3 years an estimated 2,000 Laysan Albatross and 2,000 Black-footed Albatross were killed in the waters around Hawaii. In the southern oceans, it is estimated that over 40,000 albatross of several species are killed annually. Other birds killed include petrels, skuas, gulls, kittiwakes, fulmars, shearwaters, and penguins.