Seabirds will try to steal bait from hooks on the line, ingesting the bait and ending up hooked. Many of the encountered seabirds are endangered. Those are two good reasons to try to avoid hooking birds.

This section will describe the measures most commonly recommended as effective at reducing seabird bycatch, the combinations of measures required by different tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs), and the areas in which these apply. This section will also briefly cover the types of seabirds, and the best techniques for dehooking and releasing birds (for more details, see FAO 2009b).