Albatrosses are killed by fisheries in two main ways: seizing baited longline hooks as gear sinks and being struck by trawl warp cables. Because albatrosses are long-lived and slow-breeding, even modest adult mortality drives steep decline, and the black-browed albatross was assessed at higher risk categories through the 1990s and 2000s.
The mitigations that work are unglamorous. Streamer lines, called tori lines, flutter above the sinking hooks and deter birds from reaching them; weighting the line makes the bait sink out of reach faster; setting gear at night reduces encounters; and offal management stops attracting birds to the vessel in the first place. Where these are enforced together, seabird bycatch falls sharply.
The black-browed albatross was subsequently reassessed as Least Concern, an unusual direction of travel for a seabird. Two cautions belong with that. The improvement is uneven across fleets, and unregulated or unobserved fishing is where mortality persists. Compliance monitoring, rather than the existence of rules, remains the weak link.