Initiatives to reduce tropical tuna FAD fishery ecological impacts: from traditional to nonentangling and biodegradable FADs

Two ecological impacts historically linked with traditional FADs are ghost fishing of sensitive species and marine pollution. Both issues directly relate to FAD design and construction materials, in which in general wide mesh size nylon netting is the principal component. Modifying FAD designs to avoid open large mesh and using non-synthetic degradable materials can help solving these problems. In the early 2010’s the Spanish purse seine fleet began to replace entangling FADs by non-entangling FADs. This process has occurred within the frame of the Code of Good Practices, a self-imposed voluntary agreement to adopt best available sustainable fishing practices by the Spanish fleet covering over 65 super-seiners operating in the Indian, Atlantic, Western and Central Pacific and Eastern Pacific Oceans. Compliance has been monitored since late 2014 by interviews first and by observers and data revised by an independent scientific body, AZTI. In the first two years of the program, over 600 fishing trips and 37879 FADs have been examined showing that the majority of FADs are completely non-entangling (NEFADs). This document also updates on the use of NEFADs by other fleets across the world. The next step is to find suitable biodegradable FAD materials to prevent marine pollution caused by lost FADs. For this purpose, the EU funded BIOFAD project soon will embark in an Indian Ocean trial where 1000 biodegradable FADs will be deployed and monitored over the next two-years by the Spanish and French fleet.