Every year, hundreds of thousands of seabirds are hurt or killed by fishing gear, placing them among the most threatened groups of all birds. And for fishermen, this issue isn’t just a conservation problem; it’s also bad for business. Hoping to reduce the number of birds accidentally captured by fishing gear, American Bird Conservancy and Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Environmental Informatics launched an interactive online tool to help fishermen and conservationists assess the risk posed to seabirds by fishing gear.

With support from the Walton Family Foundation, the groups created a new website that allows users to create fishery area maps that sync to a database of nearly 400 seabird species. With only a few clicks, users can identify which birds frequent the specified area, their overall ranges, diving depths and diets, population size and any overlapping protected areas or Exclusive Economic Zones. In addition to providing information on seabirds in a geographic area and resources on how to reduce risk of accidental capture, the tool also helps fishermen determine which birds are known to interact with the fishing gear they personally use, helping them more accurately assess the risks of their fishing methods.

With information that used to take months to compile now accessible in seconds, fishermen, conservationists and fisheries managers can work more quickly and efficiently to reduce the number of seabirds that get caught in commercial fishing gear – a win for both the fishermen and the birds.